Aadi Mahotsav (Tribal Festival) organized by Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), Ministry of Tribal Affairs went off to a colourful start on 30 September 2019 at Expo Centre Sector-62, Noida (UP). Renuka Singh, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs inaugurated the festival. Deepak Khandekar, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ramesh Chand Meena, Chairman TRIFED and many dignitaries were also present on the occasion. The festival will continue till 8th October, 2019.
The Minister took a round of the Mahotsav and interacted with the tribal artists and lauded their significant role in the protection, preservation and promotion of the rare folk art and craft of the country. She said that TRIFED is doing an excellent job by holding such purposeful programmes across the country for connecting people and integrating India and for offering tribal artisans a platform to showcase their artistic creations to a bigger and wider mark. She spoke about the unity which can be seen in these kinds of events.
Ramesh Chand Meena elaborately explained that apart from handicrafts, the tribes gather from the forests a range of forest produces which include various tree-borne products like flowers, fruits, seeds, barks and leaves and various insect produces like honey. All these are hundred percent organic products. Knowing that organic food products command a premium price, Trifed plans to tap this premium niche market. Thus, ensuring that the benefit of higher prices accrues to the tribals.
Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Deepak Khandekar expressed his happiness to have successfully launched the event. He briefed the public and brought to light the schemes and activities of Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Trifed is doing significant work in this direction and have now embraced e-commerce and digital platforms to take the business forward, he added.
Acclaimed artists and artisans, drawn from as many as 20 states of the country, including Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh (MP), Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal and North-Eastern states are a part of this mega cultural razzmatazz and showcase their traditional art, craft and culture. The traditional tribal jewellery, rare of the rarest craft items and artefacts will be a huge attraction for the inquisitive buyers.
TRIFED is engaged, heart and soul, in ameliorating the lot of small and marginal artists and artisans by inviting them to such mega cultural event and offering them space and genuine price of their product from the buyers. This also helps them to get rid of the middlemen usurping their profits. For the first time, tribal merchandize payments will be accepted through credit and debit cards in line with the national aspiration to go cashless. TRIFED is promoting all their tribal products on ONLINE platform too which is Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm & GeM in a very aggressive way.
