Under its revised mandate TRIFED has stopped bulk procurement in Minor Forest Produce
(MFP) and surplus Agricultural Produce (SAP) from tribals. TRIFED now functions as a ‘market
developer’ for tribal products and as ‘service provider’ to its member federations.
Relevant Website: www.trifed.in
Forest Rights of STs
The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights)
Act, 2006 seeks to recognize and vest the forest rights and occupation in forest land in forest
dwelling scheduled tribes and other traditional forest dwellers who have been residing in such
forests for generations but chose rights on ancestral lands and their habitat were not adequately
recognized in the consolidation of state forests during the colonial period as well as in
independent India resulting in historical injustice to them. The Act has been notified for
operation from 2007.
Rules, for implementing the provisions of the Act, were notified in 2008 and they envisage
the constitution of various Committees under the Act, viz, the sub divisional level committee,
district level committee and the state level monitoring committee, by the state governments. All
the states have been requested to nominate the nodal officer for implementing the provisions of
the Act. The state governments were also requested to take necessary steps to ensure that
awareness is created about the objectives, provisions and procedures of the Act and the Rules
through various measures including awareness programmes and printed material such as posters
in the regional languages; ensure the translation and publication of the Act and the Rules in all
the regional languages and arrange to distribute to all gram sabhas, forest right committees and
all departments of the government including panchayati raj, rural development, tribal and social
welfare and forest departments; undertake the orientation of officials, civilian representative and
non-governmental organizations in the state, who can then be called upon to assist as resource
persons in the awareness programmes; and sensitize the sub-divisional and district level
committees on the objectives, provisions and procedures of the Act and the Rules.
As per the Act, the responsibility for recognition and vesting of forest rights and distribution
of land rights rests with the state government. All the state governments have been directed that
the entire process of vesting of forest rights as per the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional
Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 should be completed at the earliest.
Web-based MIS for online monitoring of the implementation of the Act has been made
operational from 2008 for testing purposes on website http://www.tribal.gov.in.
Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana
The central government launched an approach, namely, Vanbandhu Kalyan Yojana (VKY)
with a view to translate the available resource into overall development of tribal population with
an outcome-based orientation. The VKY has been adopted as a strategic process. It aims at
creating enabling environment for need based and outcome oriented holistic development of
tribal people. This process envisages to ensure that all the intended benefits of goods and
services under various programmes / schemes of central as well as state governments actually
reach the target groups by convergence of resources through appropriate institutional
mechanism.
Umbrella Scheme for Education of ST Children