Context

TRIFED and NITI Aayog will be partnering to implement the Van Dhan Yojana in the Tribal clusters in those districts that have been identified as aspirational districts by NITI Aayog.

About Van Dhan Scheme

• The Van Dhan Yojana or Van Dhan Scheme is a component of the ‘Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) & Development of Value Chain for MFP’.
• It was launched on 14th April, 2018.
• It was implemented by TRIFED as the nodal agency at the national level, the Van Dhan start ups is a well thought master plan for the socio-economic development of the tribal population of the country. 
• The idea is to set-up tribal community-owned Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters (VDVKCs) in predominantly forested tribal districts.

Features about the collaborative initiative under the Van Dhan Yojana

• TRIFED along with the NITI Aayog team will work out the follow-up-plan for the implementation of the Van Dhan Yojana in each of the 39 Tribal Aspirational Districts.
• States: These include districts in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana and Tripura.
• Features: To this accord, a VC will be planned with the District Collectors of all districts.
  • As a part of this association, a special focus will be on these aspirational districts where tribal population constitutes more than 50%. 
  • NITI Aayog will also support TRIFED in the concept of convergence for the Mission with Article 275(1), DMF, and STC component of different Ministries, and will help in professionally monitoring and promotion for effective implementation and feedback.
• Significance: The Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters will provide the Van Dhan Vikas Kendras economies of scale, livelihood and market-linkages, as well as entrepreneurship opportunities.
  • A typical Van Dhan Vikas Kendra includes 20 tribal members.
  • 15 such Van Dhan Vikas Kendras form 1 Van Dhan Vikas Kendra cluster.

Some other Initiatives under TRIFED

• Van Dhan tribal start-ups
• Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP)
• Development of Value Chain for MFP’ Scheme
• Value addition and marketing through tribal groups and clusters