Tribals should be treated as entrepreneurs: Tribal Affairs Min

New Delhi, Aug 9 (KNN) Tribals should be treated as entrepreneurs and efforts should be made to upgrade them in technology, said Arjun Munda, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs.

Inaugurating ‘National Workshop on Tribal Enterprise with focus on Honey, Bamboo and Lac’, Munda released the flyers and reports on Bamboo and Bamboonomics; Lac; and Honey on the occasion.

The workshop was organized by TRIFED and M/o Tribal Affairs to fine-tune its action plan on the Promoting Tribal Enterprise on Bamboo, Honey and lac.

Delivering inaugural address, Shri Arjun Munda said that the focus of such efforts should not be confined to job creation only but should focus on fulfilling the needs of the market.

Support system and research should be market driven and equilibrium should be maintained between the demand and supply in the market. For these products, markets should be innovation and research based, Munda added.

Minister said “The quality and prices of the products should also be maintained properly. The tribals should be treated as entrepreneurs and efforts should be made to upgrade them in technology.”

Addressing on the occasion, MoS for Tribal Affairs, Renuka Singh said that such initiatives will strengthen ‘Van Dhan Vikas Kendras’.

The integration of ‘Van Dhan, Jan Dhan and Pashu Dhan’ will reform the lives of tribals considerably. Van Dhan scheme has the cluster of Self Help Groups to support tribals and is the mainstay for their family income who are living in and around the forest areas, she added.

Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Deepak Khandekar in his welcome address said that the reason behind Bamboo, Honey and Lac taken up for Van Dhan Scheme is that, these commodities are already having existing markets which enable producers i.e. tribal entrepreneurs catch on to the chain of procurement- primary level processing-storage value addition and marketing.

After inaugural session, Technical Sessions were held on the Bamboo Products, Lac Products and Honey in which experts presented their Presentations on the success stories, production, use and business related to these products.

National Workshop was an initiative to formulate a strategy for establishing tribal enterprises based on skill and local resources available particularly in Bamboo, Honey and Lac. In the workshop, National and International experts deliberated and gave their views and ideas for establishing implementable and commercially viable Tribal Enterprises.

The expert insight and deliberation will explore the significance of Bamboo, Lac and Honey to address livelihoods of tribal communities across the country.

The workshop also introduced feasible technologies and process for production of value-added products from Bamboo, Lac and Honey.