NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has collaborated with NITI Aayog to implement the Van Dhan Yojana in districts identified as aspirational. As a follow-up of the implementation of the Yojana in the tribal aspirational districts, a TRIFED team briefed about the DMs/DCs of these districts during a meeting on July 23.
The Van Dhan tribal start-ups and the mechanism for marketing of minor forest produce (MFP) through minimum support price (MSP) and development of value chain for MFP scheme that provides MSP to gatherers of forest produces and introduces value addition and marketing through tribal groups and clusters are among the many initiatives of TRIFED for generating employment and income for tribal population.
As per TRIFED, 37,904 Van DhanVikasKendras (VDVKs), subsumed into 2275 Van DhanVikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs) of 300 forest dwellers each, have been sanctioned by TRIFED till date.
A Van DhanVikas Kendra includes 20 tribal members. Fifteen such Van DhanVikas Kendras form one Van DhanVikas Kendra cluster. The Van DhanVikas Kendra Clusters provide the Van DhanVikas Kendras economies of scale, livelihood and market-linkages, as well as entrepreneurship opportunities to nearly 6.77 lakh tribal forest gatherers in 27 states.