The Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs has been allocated ₹14,925.81 crore, while the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has been allocated ₹14,886 crore in the Union Budget 2025-26, presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Saturday (February 1, 2025).  

Read the Union Budget 2025 Highlights

The allocations marked a 14.81% increase for Tribal Affairs Ministry compared to the previous year’s Budget Estimates (BE), whereas the Social Justice Ministry saw an increase of about 4.6%. This comes despite both Ministries seeing reductions at the Revised Estimate (RE) stage.  

While the BE 2024-25 had allocated ₹13,000 crore for Tribal Affairs Ministry, the RE for the year had been brought down to ₹10,237.33 crore. Similarly, the Social Justice Ministry’s RE for 2024-25 had been brought down to ₹11,193.67 crore from the July 2024 allocation of ₹14,225.47 crore. 

However, the Actual Expenditure for both Ministries was significantly lower for FY 2023-24, according to the Budget documents, which showed that the Tribal Affairs Ministry was able to spend ₹7,511.64 crore and the Social Justice Ministry had spent ₹9,703.61 crore in FY23-24.  

This year’s increase in the budget allocation for the Tribal Affairs Ministry has come largely towards the implementation of the Dharti Aba Janjatiya Gram Utkarsh Abhiyan (DAJGUA), announced in last year’s Budget, PM-JANMAN package for development of Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, and the flagship Eklavya Model Residential School (EMRS) scheme for tribal students. However, this year’s Budget showed that no allocation was made towards the Marketing and Logistics Development for Promoting Tribal Products scheme from North-Eastern Region, which had been allocated ₹107.52 crore in last year’s BE, cut down to just ₹2 crore in the RE stage.

Also Read | Nirmala Sitharaman announces PM Dhan Dhanya Krishi Yojana for farmers in Budget 2025

Meanwhile, the increase in the allocation for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment came towards the National Overseas Scholarship for SCs and pre and post matric scholarships for Scheduled Castes, Other Backward Classes (OBC), Economically Backward Classes (EBC), and Denotified Tribes (DNT). Within this Ministry, the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities’ allocation saw a marginal rise.  

While for the DAJGUA package, the Ministry has received an allocation of ₹2,000 crore under the Transfer to States and UTs component, the PM-JANMAN package has received an allocation of ₹300 crore under this component, up from ₹240 crore in the last BE. However, the allocation for pre-matric scholarship for STs was marginally reduced to ₹313.79 crore from ₹440.36 crore in the previous BE, which was reduced to ₹200 crore in the RE stage.  

Further, the EMRS scheme saw a jump in allocation from ₹6,399 crore in last year’s BE to ₹7,088.60 crore in this year’s Budget, even though the RE had been reduced to ₹4,748.92 crore.  Government officials told The Hindu that the Ministry is better placed this year to be able to spend closer to the BE, given that most of the new EMRS construction have been cleared of forest and land issues now.

While the National Overseas Scholarship for SCs has been allocated ₹130 crore (BE), up from ₹95 crore (RE) last year, the allocation for post-matric scholarship for SCs was kept at ₹6,360 crore (BE), up from ₹5,500 crore (RE).  

The largest increase in allocation came towards the scholarships for OBCs, EBCs, and DNTs, with the Budget documents showing that the post-matric scholarship for these demographics had been raised from ₹921 crore (RE) to ₹1,250 crore (BE), whereas the pre-matric scholarship allocation went up to ₹300 crore this BE from ₹210 crore (RE).  

A significant rise was also seen in the allocation for the Commission that is working to look into granting SC status to Dalit Muslims and Christians – from ₹2.34 crore (RE) to ₹4.5 crore this year. A marginal rise in allocation was also seen for the SMILE scheme – which is to support the rehabilitation of people engaged in begging and transgender persons – from ₹60 crore in last year’s RE to ₹106.87 crore in this year’s BE.  

However, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes’ allocation saw a decline this year – to ₹41 crore (BE) compared to last year’s ₹70.79 crore (RE). The National Commission for Backward Classes, though, has seen a marginal rise in allocation to ₹22 crore. A decline has also been seen in the allocation for strengthening the machinery to enforce laws like the Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1995 and the Prevention of Atrocities Act, 1989 – from ₹500 crore (RE) last year to ₹463 crore this year.