NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs is planning to conduct a review of the operational conditions of the existing tribal research institutes (TRIs) across India, senior officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The ministry has acknowledged the urgent need to improve the condition of these institutes and the process will start in the next two-three months, said officials. Currently, there are 25 functional TRIs.
The function of the TRIs is to conduct research, support evidence-based policy, planning and legislation, undertake capacity building of tribal people and personnel and institutions associated with tribal affairs and disseminate information to raise awareness. TRIs also carry out activities like organising workshops, seminars, making documentaries and organising exchange visits.
The ministry will carry out an assessment of the number of vacancies at TRIs and will gauge if the shortage of human resources is affecting their functioning and the quality of the research. The focus will be to expand research on the socio-economic conditions of tribal communities.
“The ministry has taken note of the fact that the condition of the TRIs needs to be improved. We will carry out a thorough review of the state of the TRIs. There will be a push to motivate scholars to expand the scope of their research. The ministry will bring more focus to research on tribal culture, folklore, educational status of tribal communities, available health facilities and their livelihood options. The idea is not to focus on more data collection but on analysis," said a senior official.
“While some TRIs can be termed as model ones, there is an acute shortage of manpower in others," said the official.
The ministry has developed a digital repository where documents, folks songs, photos and videos of different tribal communities document their lifestyle, eating habits, architecture, education level, traditional art, folk dances and other anthropological details. Currently, the repository has more than 10,000 photographs, videos and publications - a significant part of which have been compiled by the TRIs.