This is All India Radio. In the program Spotlight, now we bring you adiscussion on government initiatives for Tribal Welfare and promotion of Tribal Culture. The participants are Pravir Krishna, Former Managing Director TRIFED and Rajesh Leikh, AIR correspondent.

Rajesh Leikh, AIR correspondent:

The Indian constitution has significant provision for the welfare of scheduled tribes. The Central Government and State Governments have worked tirelessly to improve Tribal Welfare and each Five-Year Plan has implemented special programs for their interest and development. Mr Krishna, the education is the only method to make tribal people aware of their rights. What has the government done especially through the Eklavya Model residential school for imparting education to the tribal people?

Pravir Krishna:

As you rightly said, education is a basic necessity for providing the tools for further development of the tribal community. So, through a network of Eklavya schools throughout the country especially in areas where scheduled tribes reside, thousands and thousands of students are given the highest quality of education so that they can sort of make some targets high and aim to be extremely educated and well versed with the technologies and tools that you need to develop) in the present-day Society.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

So the country's tribal situation paints Mr Krishna a complex picture actually. Some locations have a significant tribal concentration, while others have only a tiny percentage of the entire population. So there was under the second Five-Year Plan a significant milestone and that was the creation of 43 special multi-purpose tribal blocks. Would you please elaborate on that?

Pravir Krishna:

Every tribal as you know every tribal setup is different from the other. It could not be one team that could have fitted into the entire development scenario for the tribals. So they were mapped and identified and specific requirements of each of these regions were fulfilled through a specially designed program. So, that was the necessity for crafting out these 43 specially identified areas to meet the specific needs of each of these communities and that is why the programs that was initiated to run development schemes then became, they matched the needs of the people and where commensurate is what was needed and this is how this whole idea was developed.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

So, as we said that it is they have a complex picture. So, there are some tribes which live outside of the integrated tribal development zones and therefore in the sixth plan the modified area development approach came into being. So if you could elaborate on that?

Pravir Krishna:

So, the people who got out of this areas were beneficiaries of other programs that were available to others. So, this but still they needed a lot of support and a lot of hand holding and that is why there was the need for such a program. This again helped them to sort of further improve their economic prospects, their educational prospects and make a better living for themselves, improve their livelihoods and quality of life.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

Perhaps, that's why the TRIFED, the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation came into being in 1987. Am I right?

Pravir Krishna:

Yes, the Tribal Marketing Federation came into being to take one aspect of tribal life is marketing of their products. Tribals, almost 55 lakh tribals live in Forest areas. Families and they are wonderful Master craftsmen who produce wonderful articles of metals, wood, clothes, jewellery, almost 26000 and there are about 100s of  items which grow in the forest, forest producers minor forest produces which they bring out from the forest and then they market it to the rest of the country. While they were wonderful producers of things in their village hamlet, while they were extremely good gatherers of forest producers, they were very poor marketing people, so they got into the crutches of middlemen and they had to sell their products at very low prices. So TRIFED was formed to provide marketing support to these wonderful craftsmen who knew very little of the modern day marketing strategies and how to Value add, how to brand, how to market their products. So, TRIFED is an agency that looks after the marketing needs of these wonderful producers and gatherers and converts them into entrepreneurs who don't only produce things but also Market things. So, TRIFED was formed to provide this marketing support to the wonderful handloom and handicraft WEAVERS and these producers of forest produces and to get them to main markets, train them to do value addition branding sort of triple or quadruple their incomes.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

And also helps them save from the exploitative interposers?

Pravir Krishna:

Exploitative middlemen, predatory middlemen as we call them in our language. Because middlemen are good for business where there's an even playing field but they become predatory where their playing field is not even and the Government of India and TRIFED)try to make this field even by being on the side of the tribals and then getting them to the large markets and relieve them of the clutches of these predators. So this is the big job that TRIFED is doing and is sort of taking the (tribal) development to the next level.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

And also by your initiatives that you talked about TRIFED is doing, they also bring the community into mainstream.

Pravir Krishna:

Yes, inclusive, the inclusivity is another one but certainly we just sort of give them this marketing support so that what they are producing is world class and they are not selling it at low prices because of their lack of access to Market. So, this access to market is what we sort of provide them and then it triples, quadruple and multiple times increases their incomes.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

So, the Central Government of India has also introduced the One Bandhu Kalyan Yojana for the holistic development and Welfare of India's Tribal Community. Would you throw light on that and how does TRIFED and One Bandhu Kalyan Yojana together work towards the welfare (of the tribals).

Pravir Krishna:

One Bandhu Kalyan Yojana is an all-inclusive program which looks at health, education, production, quality of life issues,marketing and livelihoods issues of tribal. So, all programs that help in improving the quality of life, improving the quality of Education, improving the quality of livelihoods, their earnings is part of the One Bandhu Program and I tell you recently the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched this Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Vikas Mission, 2500 crore project where tribal enterprises will be promoted and will be given sort of facilitated to give them access just to large markets not only nationally but internationally so the whole focus is on the market linked push so that the skills that tribals have, so that the products that tribals have, can be multiplied in their interest(so that it adds to their income).

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

So, what would you say is the primary strategy for tribal development in India.

(Pravir Krishna):

Tribal development in India at this moment still lies at the bottom of the poverty ladder. So the idea and strategy is to give them a big push like the Prime Minister says that it needs a long jump if small steps will not help and we need to take a long jump and this long jump is by quadrupling his income, by giving him Market access, so that he can sell his products at four to five times the price that he's getting presently and then can increase his income by at least five to six times. So this is a long jump that the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya (Vikas)Mission is aiming at to propel the tribal into the big inning of business and market and it is entirely based on his skills. We're not giving him into any alien activity which he does not know. These are skills which he's mastered over generations and generations of hard work. He's a wonderful producer of handlooms and handicrafts and products producers(forest produces) but the marketing aspect will treble quadruple and multiple time increases income and this is the strategy of what you call a market-led push which would increase the income subscribers multiple times.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

Okay are there any other steps that the government has taken to improve the facilities to the tribal communities?

Pravir Krishna:

Yes, lots of infrastructure, lots of Roads, , school, buildings, hospitals, are being prioritized in tribal areas but I think Economic Development apart from infrastructure the (and) welfare provision of food grains and prevention of health and other facilities, the basic thrust is on improving the economic part of the tribal ecosystem. We believe that if the tribal income rises if we can increase this (his) income whatever is needed he can acquire he can buy so the whole Thrust of the tribal development program is on increasing the income supportthrough very Innovative means which include uh value Edition branding and packaging of a range of products that the tribals produce and then linking them to the National and international market so that they can get the best prices and can add to his income.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

To showcase the tribal culture on the national stage the Prime Minister today inaugurated the Aadi Mahotsav and he said that Aadi Mahotsav presents a grand picture of India's tribal Heritage during the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. The PM also said that the country is soaring to new heights because the government is prioritising the development of the deprived. Now that is a very big statement and would you add to what the Prime Minister said?

Pravir Krishna:

That the Prime Minister eloquently has stated the entire crux of the tribal development initiative and like he said in a meeting earlier that by value addition, branding and marketing, we will add the missing link in the tribal ecosystem. Tribals have been wonderful producers since ages but with the addition of the marketing aspects, with the addition of value addition, with the addition of branding and international marketing to his whole system we will take him to the next stage and the tribal will pull the wall into the big league by the Pradhan Mantri Janjatia Vikas Mission which is in really a method to triple his income and the beauty of this program let me tell you is that it is based on exactly what the tribal is a master of doing at. You don't have to teach him how to produce a basket, you don't have to teach him how to produce a jewellery,  you don't have to teach him how to produce dokra, you don't have to teach him how to produce a sari. He's been producing it but the fact is that he was not getting proper prices and now that this component has been added these wonderful master craftsmen will get their fair share in the value chain and will be completely what you call a game changer, this is the game changer that has been introduced to improve the quality of life and move them up into the highest categories of income that such producers should normally be in.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

I'm going to quote Prime Minister Modi again Mr Krishna and he drew an analogy to the colors of a rainbow coming together and said that the nation's magnificence comes to the fore when it's infinite diversities are threaded into the string of Ek Bharat Shreshth Bharat and that is when India provides guidance in fact to the entire world and he beautifully emphasised that the Aadi Mahotsav is giving strength to the unity and diversity of India while giving impetus to the idea of development with Heritage. so very well said by the Prime Minister.

Pravir Krishna:

Yes, this wonderfully encapsulates the entire strategy of this Adi Mahotsav that is being organised, wonderfully that encapsulates the entire ethos and the philosophy of the whole thought, the craft the culture the cuisine and the commerce aspect of tribal life which needs to be emphasised and if he can continue doing this for some time there's no reason why tribals should be among the topmost producers and marketing professionals the country can ever hope to have.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

Just quickly your views on what the Prime Minister said about India conveys solutions to problems like global warming and climate change in its tribal way of life and the Prime Minister also said that Mr Krishna that the tribal community of India has a lot to inspire and teach with regard to sustainable development.

Pravir Krishna:

Absolutely you see the country has almost what 30–40 percent of population of area under forest and as you will know these are exactly tribal areas. So the forests have subsisted where tribals have, and tribals have subsisted where there are forests. So it is a symbiotic relationship, the tribal way of life of over 100’s of 100’s of years, how this can be sustained, they have shown the world, they have shown the country and the rest of us how sustainable can environment be as well as so the whole tribal system is based on forest and forests have survived only when there are tribals. So this way of life the tribals have lived over thousands of years is something that the rest of the world can learn and to really to preserve and protect the environment this is the lesson, abject lesson in a ways to protect and project the environment as a sustainable and economically viable development model.

Rajesh Lekh, AIR correspondent:

Mr Krishna, it was a pleasure talking to you thank you for being with All India Radio

Pravir Krishna:

Thank you very much.

This program was produced and presented by the New Services Division of All India Radio. You can listen to it on a mobile app News On Air. This program is also available on our YouTube channel News On Air Official. You may email your opinion about this program at airnsdtalks@gmail.com

———–