Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes - Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan

Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan

The strategy of Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) of 1979 is an important intervention that mandates a planning process for social, economic, and educational development of Scheduled Castes and for improvement in their working and living conditions. It is an umbrella strategy that ensures flow of targeted financial and physical benefits from general sectors of development for the benefit of Scheduled Castes. Under this strategy, population. It entails targeted flow of funds and associated benefits from the annual plan of States / Union Territories (UTs) at least in proportion to the SC population i.e. 16% in the total population of the country / the particular state. Presently, 27 States / UTs having sizeable SC populations are implementing Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan. Although the Scheduled Castes population, according to 2001 Census, was 16.66 crores constituting 16.23% of the total population of India, the allocations made through SCSP in recent years have been much lower than the population proportion. Table hereafter provides the details of total State Plan Outlay, flow to Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) as reported by the State / UT Governments for the last few years especially since the present UPA government is in power at the

• Information in respect of 14 States/UTs only and as on 31-12- 2007

Source: Network for Social Accountability (NSA) http://nsa.org.in