The percentage of scheduled tribes (STs) among beneficiaries of the  central government’s flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has been decreasing over the years.

As per the reports submitted to the rural development ministry by the states, beneficiaries belonging to STs dwindled from 36% during 2006-07 to 29% in 2007-08, 25% in 2008-09 and 20.88% in 2009-10.

One of the reasons behind the sharp decline of STs in partaking of the poverty alleviation scheme, say officials, is the reluctance of STs living in the Maoist-affected areas in participating in NREGS.

While it cannot be said with certainty if the Maoists have been forcing the STs to stay away from the central government sponsored scheme, the state-wise breakup of the STs participation in the scheme points towards this, said an official.

In Chhattisgarh, the percentage of STs has gone down from 41.32% in 2008-09 to 38.79% in 2009-10, in West Bengal from 14.81% to 13.57%, and in Maharashtra from 44.17% to 20.59% for the same period.

Curiously, though, the percentage of STs in Jharkhand and Orissa, the two other Maoist-affected state has gone up in the past two years. While Jharkhand saw an increase of 2.78%, in Orissa it was 1.46%.
The percentage of SCs and women, the other two intended beneficiaries of the scheme has gone down too. While 47% of the beneficiaries were women 2008-09, the number went down to 34% in 2009-10. Similarly the SCs' participation went down from 29 in 2008-09 to 20.