Govt extends social welfare schemes to Vanarmare tribe

Panaji: The social welfare department on Monday interacted with the Vanarmare tribe at Nirankal-Ponda to create awareness about govt schemes. It was found that although in dire need, none of the tribals benefited from any social welfare schemes, including educational schemes of govt.

The social welfare department has several pre and post matric scholarships that the community was not aware of let alone availing benefits of it.

The traditional occupation of the tribe, as their name suggests, involved killing monkeys and making a living by selling their meat. However, most have kept their bows and arrows aside to comply with the forest and wildlife acts to work as daily wage labourers.

“We found that the community has senior citizens and disabled persons, but none of them are availing themselves of the DSSS pension scheme. We felt it was our duty to reach out to this community and explore the possibility of extending govt schemes to them,” said director of social welfare Ajit Panchwadkar.

A special camp will be organised with the panchayat to complete documentation and required formalities to extend benefits to the primitive tribe, he said. “Although documentation will be a hurdle, it is our duty to resolve it for them. They are the most underprivileged community, cut off from society, and it is our responsibility to extend a hand to them,” Panchwadkar said.

The team, also comprising deputy director Medora D’Costa, assistant director Rashmi Rawal, district welfare officer Anette Gomes, and the village panchayat secretary and field worker of Bethora Nirancal, interacted with the community and explained various schemes of the social welfare department to them, who were largely unaware of them.

TOI reported in the past that the community was deprived of all govt welfare schemes meant for the underprivileged class of society, as they didn’t possess any documents to establish their identity. TOI also reported that members of the tribe voted for the very first time in the 2017 assembly elections.