Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC)

Description

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Context - The Union government has extended the grants-in-aid to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC).

Details

The Union government has decided to extend the scheme to provide Rs 40 crore grants-in-aid to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) for the fiscal year 2025-26.
- The scheme was extended to the Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) after the Galwan incident in June 2020 where 20 soldiers were killed in violent clashes with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in Eastern Ladakh.
The scheme provides for an annual grant of Rs 8 crores to CTRC to meet the administrative expenses of Settlement Offices and social welfare expenses for Tibetan refugees staying in Tibetan settlements spread across 12 States/UTs in the country.
The entire amount of Rs 40 crores (Rs 8 crores per annum) from 2016-17 to 2020-21 for this scheme has been released/reimbursed to the CTRC.

Tibetan refugees in India

More than one lakh Tibetan refugees are settled in India.
The major concentration of Tibetan refugees is in Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir.
Tibetan refugees began entering India in the wake of the flight of the Dalai Lama from Tibet in 1959 following the 14th Dalai Lama's escape to Dharamshala in India, in fear of persecution from China's People's Liberation Army.
- The Government of India decided to give them asylum as well as assistance towards temporary settlement.

CENTRAL TIBETAN RELIEF COMMITTEE

It was established in 1960 to coordinate relief and rehabilitation works for thousands of Tibetan refugees who fled from Tibet to neighbouring countries of India, Nepal and Bhutan.
CTRC members comprise a representative from every 45 settlements.
The Dalai Lama’s Central Tibetan Relief Committee (CTRC) is a non-profit organization dedicated to the welfare and socio-economic development of the Tibetan refugees exiled in India, Nepal and Bhutan.
- The committee is registered under the Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, India.
Support projects range from building homes and sponsorship for the elderly, agriculture and cooperative development, youth empowerment support, and different dimension of infrastructure like construction and renovation of houses, roads etc.

Tibet–India Relations

Tibet–India relations are said to have begun during the spread of Buddhism to Tibet from India during the 7th and 8th centuries AD.
A British expedition to Tibet, under the command of Brigadier-General James Macdonald and Col. Francis Young husband in 1903.
Treaty between Great Britain and Tibet was signed in 1904.
- The treaty imposed certain obligations on Tibet such as payment of a large amount to the British.
The Sino-British treaty in 1906
- The British agreed not to annex Tibet and China agreed "not to permit any other foreign state to interfere with the territory or internal administration of Tibet".
The 13th Dalai Lama, Thubten Gyatso, had visited the Indian subcontinent in 1910.
The king of the Qing dynasty sent a military expedition to Tibet in 1910, and Lhasa was occupied by China.
- The Dalai Lama had to flee to British India, where he stayed for around three years.
- From 1904–to 1947, over 100 British-Indian officials lived and worked in Tibet.
In August 1947, the Government of India inherited the treaties of the British Raj with regard to Tibet.
The Government of India made it clear that it regarded Tibet as a de facto country.
Chinese annexed Tibet in 1950, and in reaction, India sent a note of protest.
In 1954, China and India signed a trade agreement that would regulate the trade between the two countries with respect to Tibet.
- This trade agreement ended India's centuries-old free trade with Tibet.
At Present, India's policy on Tibet has been based on trying not to offend China.