Van Dhan Vikas Kendra

• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has given its approval for the establishment of the first ever multipurpose ‘Van Dhan Vikas Kendra’ on pilot basis in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh for providing skill upgradation and capacity building training and setting up of primary processing and value addition facility.
• This first model Van Dhan Vikas Kendra is being implemented for the training of 300 beneficiaries with a total outlay of Rs. 43.38 lakhs for the purpose of training, providing equipments and tool for primary level processing and infrastructure and building for housing the Kendra.
• This Kendra will have processing facility for Tamarind brick making, Mahua flower storage facility and chironjee cleaning and packaging.
• TRIFED has assigned the work for establishment of the pilot project in Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh to CGMFP Federation and Collector; Bijapur would be the coordinating force.
• Under this scheme, Value addition assumes critical importance in ensuring remunerative prices to the tribal in this approach. Under the scheme, three stage value additions would be the corner stone for enhancing incomes of the tribal.
• The grass root level procurement is proposed to be undertaken through SHGs associated with implementing Agencies.

Analysis:

• Minor Forest Produce (MFP) is a major source of livelihood for tribals living in forest areas. The importance of MFPs for this section of the society can be gauged from the fact that around 100 million forest dwellers depend on MFPs for food, shelter, medicines and cash income. It provides them critical subsistence during the lean seasons, particularly for primitive tribal groups such as hunter gatherers, and the landless.
• Tribals derive 20-40% of their annual income from MFP on which they spend major portion of their time. This activity has strong linkage to women’s financial empowerment as most of the MFPs are collected and used/sold by women. MFP sector has the potential to create about 10 million workdays annually in the country.
• Ministry of Tribal Affairs has taken a number of initiatives for socio economic development of tribals like introduction Forest rights Act, PESA Act and has been implementing schemes for development of MFP by providing financial support to State TDCCs and TRIFED for market development of MFPs.

By: Vishal