Mainstreaming Tribal Through Financial Literacy:With Special Reference to Koraput District of Odisha

The state of Odisha has witnessed highest concentration of tribal population in comparison with general population. The traditional livelihood of tribal people mainly depends on the agricultural and forest products. But the patterns of land and forest resources are not very supportive any more to maintain the livelihood. This along with backwardness of the area has forced the tribal to remain aloof from the mainstream growth path. They live as isolated entities for centuries. As a consequence of that they have lagged far behind the changing pattern of socio-economic progress. Fundamental rights like healthcare, education and employment opportunities have remained out of their reach. The constitutional assurance of protection has, by and large, failed to improve their lot appreciably. The combined effect has forced them to choose a way of life of their own. The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution presents for administration and control of Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes and gives powers to the Governors to make regulations for the peace and good governance of the Scheduled Areas. Similarly, the Sixth Schedule also includes specific provisions for the administration of tribal areas in the States of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. Deriving force from these enabling provisions in the Constitution aimed at ensuring social, economic, and political equity, several specific legislations have been enacted by the Central and the State Governments for the welfare and protection of STs and their tribal domain. The concept of development on the basis of geographical units which are also administrative units came with the creation of 43 Tribal Blocks in 1953. The Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) concept was introduced in 1974 during the Fifth Five Year Plan to provide for financial allocations in proportion to the population of STs in the annual plans the Central and State level. A large number of schemes and programmes were implemented by Governmental/Non- Governmental agencies, covering almost all aspects of tribal life have been in operation. Focus was given to improve the socio economic standard benefit of the tribal as well. Creation of education infrastructure, healthcare facilities and employment generation are the three areas where most of the state governments are working on. Employment is one area which needs a different approach. Creation of employment opportunity is one area which may be able to reduce the rate of migration from the tribal areas.. But this is not an easy job. The traditional education system should be transformed into a skilled based education system where emphasis must be given to vocational courses. Depending more on traditional employment opportunities will not be able to solve the purpose as it has already failed to improve the economic conditions of the tribal. Access to finance is an important pre – condition for any kind of business opportunities. Access to finance may be required for personal purposes or it may have some productive purposes. Most of the traditional sources of finance are not enough to meet the requirement. There is a need for intervention of formal financial institutions which helps to reduce the burden of interest. Various models are implemented for this purposes and among them financial inclusion model is the best. The model helps to cater to the poorest section of the society. Financial inclusion is conceptually good but its implementation is tough. Adoption of IT enabled services make the process complicated. There is a basic flaw in the system. Any technology-related model can only be adopted if the required infrastructure is already in place. Most of the target audience does not have the idea to adopt the technology and this is a major hindrance in of implementing the scheme. Overall, the model is surely beneficial to uplift the conditions of the poor tribals but before that it needs massive investments to develop the infrastructure. The required infrastructure will be able to create sufficient job opportunities as well as adaptability of new system. These two areas should be linked during the timeline failing which it may not become successful.