Social Justice
Webinar on Covid-19 Response by TRIFED
- 10 Apr 2020
- 3 min read
Why in News
Recently, the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED) organized a Webinar in collaboration with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Key Points
- The webinar was organised for Virtual training of TRIFED Trainers and Self Help Groups (SHGs) on basic orientation on Covid-19 response and key preventive measures to ensure that tribal gatherers carry on their work safely.
- To create awareness among the community about social distancing and steps to be followed.
- Do’s and Don’ts Advisories during collection of Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP).
- To provide suggestive practices for maintaining personal hygiene, adopting cashless practices, etc.
- To reach more than 18,000 participants and cover tribal regions across all the 27 States.
- The collaboration helped in developing a digital communication strategy for promoting a digital campaign and highlighting the importance of Social Distancing.
- Certain proactive measures need to be initiated to ensure the wellbeing of the tribals and their economy by providing them safety and ensuring their livelihoods.
- It becomes important because it is the peak season for collection and harvest of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) and NTFP in many regions.
- MFP includes all non-timber forest produce of plant origin and includes bamboo, canes, fodder, leaves, gums, waxes, dyes, resins and many forms of food including nuts, wild fruits, honey, lac, tusser etc.
- It provides both subsistence and cash income for people who live in or near forests. They form a major portion of their food, fruits, medicines and other consumption items and also provide cash income through sales.
- Other Measures:
- UNICEF is providing the necessary support to the SHG Centers in the form of Digital Multimedia content, Webinars for Virtual training, Social Media campaigns and Vanya Radio.
- TRIFED has also reached out to the Art of Living Foundation’s #iStandWithHumanity Initiative to include a Stand With Tribal Families component which will provide food and ration for survival of the tribal community.
- Promotion of 15,000 SHGs as Van Dhan Social Distancing Awareness cum Livelihood Centers’ through a digital training program. Over 3.6 lakh tribal gatherers will be involved in the scheme.
- A total of 1205 Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVKs) have been sanctioned in 27 States and 1 Union territory involving around 18,075 Van Dhan Self Help Groups.
