By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda flagged off “Tribes India On Wheels” Mobile Vans via Video Conference in 31 cities across the country on Wednesday. Renuka Singh Saruta, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs was the Guest of Honour. Ramesh Chand Meena, Chairman, TRIFED. Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and Pravir Krishna, Managing Director, TRIFED were also present. To begin with, 57 mobile vans were flagged off in the cities like Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Bangalore, Bhopal, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Jagdalpur, Khunti, Mumbai and Ranchi to name a few.
Addressing on the occasion, Arjun Munda said that in these trying times, when the pandemic Covid-19 has disrupted lives in more ways than one, people are focusing on healthier ways of living and staying as safe as possible. This novel initiative by TRIFED ensures that one doesn’t even have to step out to shop for organic, essential natural immunity-boosting products and adopt a sustainable and wholesome way of living.
Adapting ‘Go Vocal for Local’, a mantra in these troubled times, into ‘Go Vocal for Local Go Tribal’, TRIFED has been striving to ameliorate the condition of the distressed and affected tribal people by putting in place several path-breaking initiatives, in addition to its existing flagship programmes and implementations, which have emerged as a panacea and relief. With this novel initiative of Mobile Vans, TRIFED is now taking these goods directly to the customer in various localities, and offering the same discounts. All the sales proceeds will directly go to the tribals and help in sustaining their income and livelihoods.
In her address, Renuka Singh Saruta said that in these trying times, when the pandemic has disrupted lives in more ways than one, people are focusing on healthier ways of living and staying as safe as possible. This novel initiative by TRIFED ensures that one doesn’t even have to step out to shop for organic, essential natural immunity-boosting products and adopt a sustainable and wholesome way of living. This initiative will help tribals living in rural areas.
R.C. Meena in his address said that as its latest initiative to rehabilitate the affected tribal people (artisans and forest dwellers), TRIFED, M/o Tribal Affairs has launched Tribes India On Wheels whichis yet another creative effort by the team of TRIFED Warriors as they continue to strive towards tribal upliftment. Pravir Krishna said that Tribes India on Wheels are an effort to bring Nature’s bounty to your doorstep. These mobile vans will bring the natural and immunity-boosting tribal produce such as organic haldi, dry amla, wild honey, black pepper, ragi, triphala, and lentil mixes such as moong dal, urad dal and white beans directly to the doorstep of customers over the next few months. TRIFED is also tying up with business partners for accelerating the sales of products.
Tribes India on Wheels is yet another creative effort by the team of TRIFED Warriors as they continue to strive towards tribal upliftment. It has now been more than four months since the pandemic has caused (and continues to cause) havoc in the lives of people, across the country. As people try to pick up their lives and livelihoods, the team of TRIFED warriors is continuing in its endeavour to help sustain tribal incomes and livelihoods.
A group of people standing around a tableDescription automatically generatedA group of people standing in front of a truckDescription automatically generatedDue to the suddenness of the pandemic overtaking our lives and the immediate lockdown, stocks by tribal artisans worth crores had been lying unsold. In order to ensure that these stocks got sold and all the sales proceeds go to the affected tribal families, TRIFED has launched an aggressive plan to market these unsold goods online (offering substantial discounts) through its Tribes India website and other retail platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart and GeM.
Keeping in line with the clarion call of Atmanirbhar Abhiyan, TRIFED is also set to launch an exclusive e-marketplace for tribal producers – forest dwellers and artisans, to facilitate the purchase of MFPs, handicrafts and handloomsonline soon. The Tribes India E-Mart platformwill be an omni-channel facility for tribals to sell their goods to a large national and international audience in an e-marketplace through their own e-shop. TRIFED is in the process of onboarding approximately 5 lakh tribal producers across the country and sourcing their natural produce and handcrafted goods.
