A special focus of the initiatives that TRIFED has been implementing in its mission to integrate the tribal population towards mainstream is on empowering and upskilling tribal women. Among the various initiatives that have been geared at improving the lives and livelihoods of tribal women, the Van Dhan Yojana stands out because of the impact it has been able to generate.
The Van Dhan Vikas Kendras/ tribal start-ups, is a component of the ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’ Scheme that has emerged as a beacon of change and has impacted the tribal ecosystem as never before. What makes this scheme significant is that the majority of these tribal gatherers who are being benefited are women.
Another major ongoing initiative of TRIFED to train and improve the livelihoods of tribals, and women in particular is the work being done in Barwani, Madhya Pradesh, where the second batch of Bagh print training started in December 2020.
A total of 1.88 crores has been allotted to train almost 1000 tribal women in Bagh print, Chanderi and Maheshwar styles over a period of one year.
These are just two examples of the many programmes that TRIFED has initiated that strive to improve the income and livelihoods of the tribal population, especially tribal women.