Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Durgadas Uikey informed Rajya Sabha about the Ministry's initiatives to preserve tribal heritage. The Ministry provides financial assistance to 29 Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs) under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme "Support to Tribal Research Institutes (TRIs)", including the Tribal Research Institute, Jharkhand. These TRIs function under state government administrative control and implement approved Annual Action Plans with Ministry funding.
The TRI, Jharkhand specifically undertakes documentation of tribal languages, folklore, customs, traditional knowledge, cultural programs, museum strengthening, and research publication. Digital initiatives include the TribeX (formerly Adi Sanskriti) platform for showcasing tribal cultural resources from Jharkhand, which offers short-term certificate courses for Sohrai Painting, Dokra Craft, and Jadupetia Chitrakar tribal art forms. The Ministry has also developed an AI-based translation tool "Adi Vaani" that supports text and speech translation between tribal languages (including Santhali and Mundari) and Hindi/English.
Implementation of constitutional safeguards and statutory provisions for Scheduled Areas, including the Fifth Schedule, PESA Act 1996, and Forest Rights Act 2006, remains primarily the State Government's responsibility. The Ministry provides policy guidance, advisories, and capacity-building support while TRIs undertake research and documentation for evidence-based policy formulation.
Financial assistance to TRIs is provided for research, documentation, preservation, promotion of tribal culture, museum establishment, training, publications, and knowledge dissemination. Funds are released based on approved Annual Action Plans, fund availability, and fulfillment of prescribed conditions, with no separate component exclusively for tribal cultural preservation. Project details are available on the Ministry's portal, and as of the reporting date, no new proposals were under consideration.