TRIFED opens 37,259 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra in less than 18 months

New Delhi: Improving the livelihoods of the tribal population and bettering the lives of the underprivileged and beleaguered tribals has been the mission of TRIFED, Ministry of Tribal Affairs. With this in mind, TRIFED has implemented several initiatives, keeping in mind the PM's clarion call of building an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Among the various initiatives, which have helped in alleviating the economic distress of the tribals, are the Van Dhan tribal start-ups and the Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of value chain for MFP Scheme that provides MSP to gatherers of forest produces and introduce value addition and marketing through tribal groups and clusters. These programmes have gained widespread acceptance across the country.

In particular, the initiative of Van Dhan tribal start-ups especially has been very successful.

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In less than 18 months 37,259 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVKs), subsumed into 2,224 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs) of 300 forest dwellers each, have been sanctioned by TRIFED as of date. 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 nearly 6.67 lakh Tribal forest gatherers in 23 states and 2 UTs. As per TRIFED, 50 lakh tribals have been impacted by the Van Dhan start-ups programme up until now.

During TRIFED's recent 'Sankalp se Siddhi' – Village & Digital Connect Drive from April 1, 2021, which entailed teams visit villages across the country, several success stories from different states stood out. One of these success stories was from the southern State of Karnataka.

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