Mo Jungle Jami Yojana

6th July, 2023 Environment

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Context

Odisha government, on July 2,2023, launched a scheme named, Mo Jungle Jami Yojana to effectively implement the provisions of Scheduled Tribes and other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006.
This initiative, scheme, will be implemented across 32000 villages of 32 districts and will benefit approximately 7.4 lakh tribal families in Odisha.

Other Details

With a total cost of Rs 38.76 crore, this scheme was announced in state budget 2023-24.
It will remain operative for next two years.

Mo Jungle Jami Yojana (MJJY)

It means My Forestland Scheme.
It is a scheme, entirely funded by state government, for the welfare of tribal families of Odisha with an aim to provide livelihood opportunities and food security for the Scheduled Tribe and forest dwelling population.
It includes many initiatives and activities like -
- Establishment of a state programme management unit (SPMU) at Tribal Research Institute, Bhubaneswar.
- Establishment of Forest Rights Cells at at the tahsil and district level.
- Awareness campaigns about this scheme
- Functioning of forest rights cells in all districts
- Training of various officials, field functionaries of relevant government departments and Gram Sabha members.
- Periodic monitoring, review and assessment of the scheme
It will benefit more than 7.35 million families spread over an area of 35,739 sq km.
Successful implementation of this scheme will help Odisha to become the first FRA compliant state.
Requirement is to implement all provisions which are related to–
- Individual forest rights,
- Community forest rights (CFR),
- Habitat rights for particularly vulnerable tribal groups (PVTG) and
- Conversion of forest and unsurveyed villages in all potential villages of the state.
Tribal Research Institute, Bhubaneswar identified the Potential villages for this scheme.

Benefits of Scheme

Ownership of land and easy access to forest resources to the tribals.
Increased livelihood opportunities and food security.
Integration of Tribal groups with government operated mainstream development
Conversion of non-surveyed Villages to revenue villages hence enabled the access to water supplies, road connectivity, schools and healthcare.
Digitisation the land holding records for recognition of land rights.
It will improve the forest governance

However for the success of this scheme

A proper coordination between revenue, forest and tribal department to be established.
A quick clearance of clearance of Community Forest Resources (CFR) titles is required.
All the issues resolved and provision should be implemented in a prescribed timeframe.
Gaps in the correction of records for the titles distributed should be checked efficiently and in a time bound manner.

Tribals in Odisha State

In the state there are 13 tribal groups which are recognised as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups.
In total Odisha is home to 62 types of tribes.
Total tribal population is estimated to be near 1 million which is around 23% of total population.
As per estimated by 2011 census, It is the 3rd largest state of India in terms of tribal population.
There are 32,562 FRA (under the provisions of Forest rights act) potential villages as per official government record.