New Delhi: Dalit and tribal voters are in vogue these days as in the ever rising noise of the electoral politics; all political parties compete and claim to be the biggest benefactor of this marginalized population. With assembly elections due next year in the politically sensitive states like UP, Punjab and Gujarat where sizeable votes come fall under SC-ST category, the fight to play the messiah of dalits and tribals only gets bigger and bitter. Every political party promises the moon and announces millions and billions of rupees for various schemes for the upliftment of the SC-ST population.

The ground reality of these tall promises is, however, very shocking. Irrespective of the party in power at centre and in various states, the SC-ST population across the country do not get the benefits of many schemes for a very simple reason- the funds allocated for a lot of such programmes like mid-day meal, scholarships, building schools, fertilizer subsidy etc lapse unspent, unnoticed and unquestioned.

The amount of unspent money is a staggering 2.8 lakh crores.

Investigations by data-based journalism initiative IndiaSpend, through a series of right-to-information (RTI) requests, reveal that over the last 35 years, Rs 2.8 lakh crore ($42.6 billion) set aside to improve the lives of scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) by way of measures like mid-day meals, scholarships and crop insurance was simply not spent.

The unspent amount–either lapsed or given back to the Centre–is eight times larger than India’s agriculture budget, enough to fund India’s rural road construction projects for the next 15 years, and larger than the gross domestic product of Serbia, Nepal or Jordan. If India were to distribute the Rs 2.8 lakh crore among all of India’s 250 million STs and SCs, each would get Rs 11,289.

NITI Aayog, the Planning Commission’s new avatar, which monitors these funds, verified the figures calculated by IndiaSpend. However, CEO Amitabh Kant distanced the organisation from the issue of inadequate fund utilisation. “We are just (the) monitoring agency for the funds and it’s the states and ministries that have to spend more. But we will step up the monitoring and the present government is working on it,” he told IndiaSpend.

Plan guidelines, violated time and again

The unspent Rs 2.8 lakh crore falls under two funds: Tribal Sub Plan (TSP), started in 1974-75, and Scheduled Caste Sub Plan (SCSP), begun in 1979-80, to channelise funds from general budgets to STs and SCs.

As per guidelines, a part of the budget–proportionate to at least the population of SCs and STs–at both central and state levels is to be set aside for these marginalised sections. The current population of SCs and STs in India is 16.6% and 8.6%. So, 16.6% and 8.6% of the Union budget should be allocated to SCSP and TSP, respectively. The same applies to the states too.

Not just that, each ministry, whether state or central, has to keep aside the same percentage of their total funds for SCSP and TSP to carry out individual, family or habitat development works and welfare schemes for SCs and STs.

For instance, the human resource development ministry has to set apart funds under the two strategies for building schools, providing nutritious meals and scholarships and other similar measures for SCs and STs. Similarly, the agriculture ministry has to set aside funds for providing subsidised seeds and fertilisers and crop insurance to SC and ST farmers.

The funds are ‘non-lapsable’ as per the guidelines issued in 2006 and 2014 by the erstwhile Planning Commission, now NITI Aayog. But low spending has crippled the effort. Records show that no matter which party is in power, SCs and STs rarely benefit from these funds.

Most states guilty of neglecting the funds

While Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab top the list for SCSP funds remaining unspent for 2005–14, Jharkhand, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh lead in TSP.

Also, the percentage of unspent amount is alarmingly high. For instance, it is as high as 61% or Rs 4,643 crore for Telangana in 2014-15. The real unspent amount will be even higher, because data on expenditure are not available for many years with the various governments.

P S Krishnan, a bespectacled 83-year-old retired IAS officer and former Secretary to the Government of India, was the man behind the introduction of SCSP in 1980. He spoke animatedly about how former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi cut through red-tape by issuing a letter to roll out the strategy.

Krishnan’s face darkened as he talked of its tardy implementation. “Politicians and bureaucrats have always remained apathetic to the most backward classes–dalits and adivasis,” he said.

What happens to unused funds?

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has not changed the 35-year pattern of neglecting to spend the funds. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first year in office saw the highest amount unspent and also the highest percentage of amount unspent over the last three years.

As per the guidelines, the funds that remain unspent at the end of a financial year are supposed to be transferred to a non-lapsable central pool to be used later.

But that, actually, is not what happens.

“The concept of transfer of unutilised TSP funds to NLCPTF (central pool of TSP funds) remained a non-starter,” the comptroller and auditor general–the government’s auditor–had noted in this 2015 audit report of TSP funds.

A senior NITI Aayog official, who spoke to IndiaSpend on condition of anonymity, confirmed that unspent funds are being “lapsed”, not carried forward to the next year as per rules. “The committee is informed that there has been ‘poor utilisation’ of the allocated funds for welfare of SCs and STs,” says NITI Aayog in its latest guidelines to the states.

(Report by IndiaSpend.Comments added by India Samvad.)