Shyamhari Chakra
In a bid to bridge the gap between tribal entrepreneurship and marketing of its wide array of tribal products, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs launched “Tech for Tribals” initiative in the national capital on Tuesday.
Under this initiative, TRIFED has tied up with reputed national institutions such as IIT, Kanpur; Art of Living, Bangalore; TISS, Mumbai; KISS, Bhubaneswar; Vivekananda Kendra, Tamil Nadu and SRIJAN, Rajasthan for conducting Vandhan training programmes in the states of Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.
TRIFED, under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises has commenced the “Tech for Tribals” programme, the officials informed.
The programme aims at a holistic development of tribals with a focus on entrepreneurship development, soft skills, IT and business development through SHGs operating through Van Dhan Vikas Kendras, they elaborated.
The programme is designed to tap the traditional knowledge and skills of tribals and add branding, packaging and marketing skills to optimize their income through a market led enterprise model by setting up of Van Dhan Kendras.
TRIFED has so far sanctioned 1243 Van Dhan Kendras in 21 States and one Union Territory involving 3.68 lakh tribal beneficiaries. It aims at setting up of 3000 such Kendras across 307 districts in 27 States.
The thrust of the scheme has been on bridging the gap between tribal entrepreneurs and urban market.
This programme will mainly entail three aspects of development for sustainable entrepreneurship which can be considered as the three pillars – Engagement, Capacity Building and Market linkages.
This will boost a professionally designed and sustainable commercial growth of the tribal entrepreneurs, the officials maintained.
