Promoting & backing tribal entrepreneurship! Vast network of Van Dhan Kendras established across India

New Delhi, April 17: “We will establish 50,000 ‘Van Dhan Vikas Kendras’ in the tribal areas of the country to ensure the availability of primary processing and value addition for forest produce and to provide employment for tribals and increase tribal income,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said as a part of his vision for overall development of the country and to make each section of society self-reliant and empowered.

 

 

Over the past 18 months, the Van Dhan Vikas Yojana has gained tremendous ground with its quick adoption and robust implementation aided by the state nodal and implementation agencies across India. Many success stories from different parts of the country have come to the fore. As per TRIFED, in less than 18 months, 33,360 Van DhanVikas Kendras, subsumed into 2224 VDVKCs of 300 forest dwellers each, have been sanctioned by TRIFED as of March 31, 2021. TRIFED states that a typical Van Dhan Vikas Kendra includes 20 tribal members. 15 such Van Dhan Vikas Kendras form 1 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra cluster. The Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters will provide the Van Dhan Vikas Kendras economies of scale, livelihood and market-linkages, as well as entrepreneurship opportunities to Tribal forest gatherers in 23 states and 2 UTs, the statement noted.

 

 

Among the many initiatives, TRIFED is implementing to generate employment and income generation among the tribal population is the Van Dhan tribal start-ups programme, a component of the ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Development of Value Chain for MFP’ Scheme. The Van Dhan tribal start-ups, also a component of the same scheme, is a programme for value addition, branding and marketing of Minor Forest Produces by establishing Van Dhan Kendras to facilitate creation of sustainable livelihoods for the forest-based tribes.

 

 

Among the states, Manipur, in particular, which has emerged as the Champion state where the Van Dhan programme has emerged as a major source of employment for the local tribals. TRIFED has stated that since the time that the programme was launched in the State in October 2019, 100 Van Dhan Vikas clusters have been established, out of which 77 are operational. These constitute 1500 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters, which are benefitting 30,000 tribal entrepreneurs, who are involved in collection, processing, packaging and marketing of value-added products from Minor Forest produce.A plus point is the scalability and replicability of the implementation model of the scheme, which has aided in its expansion across India.

 

 

The North-East is leading the way with 80 per cent of the established VDVKs. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh are other states where the scheme has been adopted with overwhelming results.

 

Moreover the speciality of the whole exercise is that it has managed to create market linkages. Many of these tribal enterprises are connected to markets. A wide array of products ranging from fruit candy (amla, pineapple, wild apple, ginger, fig, tamarind), jam (pineapple, amla, plum), juice & squash (pineapple, amla, wild apple, plum, Burmese grapes), spices (dalchini, turmeric, ginger), pickles (bamboo shoot, king chilly), processed giloy, all of which have been processed and packaged in Van Dhan Vikas Kendras have reached the market and are even being marketed on TribesIndia.com and through the Tribes India outlets.

 

 

State governments have also been spurred, due to the success of the Van Dhan programme, to activate the MSP For MFP scheme where over the course of the pandemic, there has been a record procurement of varieties of MFPs providing tribal gatherers a direct benefit transfer in just 10 months!

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