One of the major initiatives taken up by the Government during the financial year 2021-22 is the launch of Dalit Bandhu Programme for the economic upliftment of the Scheduled Caste people in the State. Under this scheme, each beneficiary household will be provided with a financial assistance of Rs. 10 lakh as a complete grant without any bank dependencies to establish a suitable income generating source.
The scheme was launched on August 4, 2021 at Vasalamarri Village in the Alair Assembly Constituency (AC) of Yadadri-Bhuvanagiri district. Till January 2022, an amount of Rs.2,000 crore has been released to 17,554 dalit families and Rs. 7.60 crore has been released to 72 dalit families in Huzurabad and Alair ACs respectively.
Subsequently, the Government has taken a decision to implement the Dalit Bandhu scheme in 5 more ACs- Madhira (SC)1, Thungathurthi (SC), Jukkal (SC), Achampet (SC) and Kalwakurthy to better gauge the peculiarities and differences in the implementation modalities. An amount of Rs. 250 crore benefiting 2500 Dalit families has been released in these ACs.
After successfully gauging the alignment of the community’s need for social and economic upliftment, additionally the Government has proposed to implement the Dalit Bandhu Scheme in 118 ACs (including the 5 ACs mentioned above and except Huzurabad AC) in the state covering 100 dalit families in each constituency during this financial year itself and has released an amount of Rs. 300 crore to the 33 districts in the state.
