Integrated Tribal Development Project

Also called: ITDP · Topic: Regional Planning and Sustainable Development in India · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 6 "Planning and Sustainable Development in Indian Context"

Meaning

An Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) is an area development unit under the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP). It plans and spends money for one tribal region as a single block, instead of each government department working on its own. In NCERT, Bharmaur in Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh is the case study for it.

It matters because it is India's main example of target area planning (planning for one backward region). The Bharmaur case shows both sides of the approach: it brought real gains, but those gains were spread unevenly inside the region.

Explanation

How it works: from the Tribal Sub-Plan to the ITDP

• Step 1: the Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) started in the Fifth Five Year Plan (1974).
• A share of plan money is kept aside for tribal areas.
• The share is at least in proportion to the tribal share of the population.

• Why it was needed: general plans mostly spent money in richer areas, so tribal areas fell behind.

• Step 2: the ITDP turns that money into action on the ground.

• One tribal region is treated as one planning unit.
• Roads, farming, schools and health are planned together, not department by department.

• Under the TSP, Bharmaur became one of five ITDPs in Himachal Pradesh.

• Result: a backward region gets money it can rely on, and that money is planned for the region as a whole.

Priorities of the Bharmaur ITDP (in order)

1. Transport and communications: roads and telephone links to end the region's isolation.
2. Agriculture and allied activities: farming, horticulture (fruit and vegetable growing) and animal husbandry (rearing animals).
3. Social and community services: schools, health care and drinking water.

Why Bharmaur needed it: the conditions

• Harsh climate: winters are long and snowy, and the growing season is short.

• January mean temperature: 4°C. July mean temperature: 26°C.

• Low resource base: there is little flat land, and the soils are poor.

• Fragile environment: steep slopes break and wear away easily.

• Roads and farming can set off landslides.

• The people, the Gaddis: they lived for a long time in geographical and economic isolation and faced socio-economic deprivation (they were poor and left out).

• They traditionally practise transhumance (moving sheep and goats up to high mountain pastures in summer and down to valley pastures in winter).
• They speak the Gaddiali dialect.
• They were declared a Scheduled Tribe in the 1970s. A Scheduled Tribe is a community listed under Article 342 of the Constitution, which gives it special protection.

What the ITDP achieved, and where it fell short

• Infrastructure: schools, health care, drinking water, roads, communications and electricity reached the region.
• Social gains:
• Female literacy rose from 1.88% (1971) to 65% (2011).
• The gender gap in literacy became smaller.
• The sex ratio (number of females per 1,000 males) improved.

• Child marriage declined.

• Economic change:

• More pulses and cash crops are now grown.
• Farming still uses traditional technology.
• Transhumance is declining: only about one-tenth of households still practise it.

• Many Gaddis now go down to the Kangra valley in winter to work for wages.

• Spatial inequality (benefits shared unevenly across the area):

• Cause: villages along the Ravi in Holi and Khani lie in easier valleys that roads can reach.
• Process: schools, roads and power lines went first to the places where they were cheapest and easiest to build.
• Result: Holi and Khani gained the most, while remote Kugti and Tundah still lag behind.
• Lesson: a target-area plan can create inequality within the target area if it ignores the most remote places.

Where it occurs

• Bharmaur tribal region: the Bharmaur and Holi tehsils of Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh. A tehsil is a unit of land below a district.
• It was notified as a tribal area on 21 November 1975.
• Location: 32°11' N to 32°41' N and 76°22' E to 76°53' E.
• Area: about 1,818 sq km. Height: mostly 1,500–3,700 m above sea level.
• Mountains: the Pir Panjal lies to the north and the Dhaula Dhar to the south. The two ranges meet near Rohtang Pass.
• Rivers: the Ravi and its tributaries Budhil and Tundahen cut deep gorges (narrow, steep valleys).
• Four physical divisions: Holi, Khani, Kugti and Tundah.

• Census 2011: 39,113 people, at a density of 21 persons per sq km.

• Who runs it and how it is funded today:

• The TSP strategy now runs as the Development Action Plan for Scheduled Tribes (DAPST) [2][3].
• Under DAPST, 42 ministries or departments set aside 4.3% to 17.45% of their budgets every year for tribal development [2].
• DAPST covers over 200 schemes [2].
• Himachal Pradesh is one of 22 states and 2 UTs where the TSP/DAPST applies [3].
• ITDPs/ITDAs receive money under the Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS) [3][4].
• Because Himachal Pradesh is a hill state, the Centre and the state share the cost in a 90:10 ratio [3].

Don't confuse with

• Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) / DAPST: this is the budget strategy that sets money aside. The ITDP is the area unit that spends that money in one tribal region.
• MADA (Modified Area Development Approach): covers smaller tribal pockets outside ITDP areas. An ITDP covers a large, compact tribal region such as Bharmaur.
• PM JANMAN (2023): a mission-mode scheme only for the 75 PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups) [2]. The Gaddis are a Scheduled Tribe, not a PVTG, so Bharmaur's ITDP is not part of it.
• Fifth Schedule / PESA, 1996: these are constitutional and legal protections for Scheduled Areas, such as gram sabha powers over minor forest produce and land. An ITDP is a planning and funding unit, not a law.

Prelims Hooks

• Bharmaur = Bharmaur and Holi tehsils, Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh. It has been a notified tribal area since 21 November 1975.
• From north to south: Pir Panjal, then Bharmaur, then Dhaula Dhar. The two ranges meet near Rohtang Pass.
• The region is drained by the Ravi with its tributaries Budhil and Tundahen. A common trap is to say the Beas or the Chenab.
• Holi and Khani (along the Ravi valley) gained the most from the ITDP. Kugti and Tundah lag behind.
• Bharmaur was one of five ITDPs in Himachal Pradesh. Its first priority was transport and communications. The TSP began in the Fifth Plan (1974).
• Female literacy rose from 1.88% (1971) to 65% (2011). The Gaddis are an ST, not a PVTG.

Mains Points

• Target area planning needs equal reach inside the region (GS-I/GS-III):
• The ITDP raised literacy and brought roads, power and water to Bharmaur.
• But the gains clustered in the easy-to-reach Ravi valley (Holi, Khani), not in remote Kugti and Tundah.

• Policy response: rank villages by remoteness and set aside money for the hardest-to-reach places. Aspirational Districts (2018) and PM JANMAN (2023) already rank places by how far behind they are [2].

• Sustainable development in a fragile Himalayan region:

• Steep slopes, snow and few resources limit how much development the land can take.

• Roads and cash crops must come with slope stability measures, watershed management and protection of pasture commons (shared grazing land).

• Change in a pastoral society and the evolution of tribal policy:

• Transhumance has fallen to about one-tenth of households, and more people now do seasonal wage work in Kangra. This is livelihood diversification, but traditional knowledge and the use of high pastures are being lost.
• Policy response: value addition for wool and livestock, horticulture, and eco-tourism linked to Gaddi culture.
• Policy line: TSP (1974), then ITDP area units, then DAPST across many ministries, then PM JANMAN [2][3]. This line is backed by Fifth Schedule and PESA protections.

Related concepts

• Bharmaur tribal region
• Gaddi
• Tribal sub-plan
• Impact of ITDP in Bharmaur
• PM JANMAN

Read more

• Case study: the Integrated Tribal Development Project in Bharmaur