Leh:
In a bid to give a fillip to the tribal economy in Ladakh, Union minister Arjun Munda and Jammu and Kashmir Governor Satya Pal Malik will inaugurate the ‘Aadi Mahotsav’ or the national tribal festival on Saturday here.
Home Minister Amit Shah was to inaugurate the festival, but he could not come as he was pre-occupied.
In a message, Shah said, “I am happy that the Tribal Affairs Ministry is organising Aadi Mahotsav in Leh, Ladakh, which will showcase tribal culture, cuisine, art, craft, and herbal medicines. The event will help spread these in other parts of the country and provide opportunities to tribals for economic growth and prosperity.”
Aimed at scaling up business opportunities for tribals, it is the first such event in Ladakh since the central government announced the decision to make Ladakh a Union Territory.
Ladakh is currently a part of Jammu and Kashmir and the new UT will come into effect on October 31.
The nine-day Aadi Mahotsav, a joint initiative of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), will be organised at the Polo Ground, Leh, till August 25.
Around 160 tribal artisans from more than 20 states across the country will participate and showcase their craft.
The major attraction will be the tribal textiles from Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha, West Bengal; jewellery from Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and the Northeast; Gond and Warli art, metal craft from Chhattisgarh and black pottery from Manipur.
Managing Director of TRIFED Praveer Krishna said the changes in the Union Territory status of Ladakh has provided an opportunity to scale up business opportunities for tribals in Ladakh.
“We will register tribal groups from Ladakh. At present, we have a small number of them empanelled with TRIFED,” he said.
Ladakh is known for pashmina shawls and apricots. The idea is to provide the tribal cultivators with a big market across the country. Through a collaboration of TRIFED and online marketplace Amazon, these products will be sold in 190 countries across the world, Krishna said.
A TRIFED official said Ladakh did not figure on the list of the places where Aadi Mahotsav is held every year, until 2018.
“Last year, we decided to take it to new places. It was decided that one edition should be organized in Ladakh, where tribals make up 70 per cent of the population,” he said.
The event will have two reputed local cultural troupes presenting Ladakhi folk dances.
Krishna said a Van Dhan camp will be organized in Ladakh over the next 10 days. Village-level groups of tribal artisans will be formed under the Van Dhan scheme.
Launched in 2018, the Van Dhan scheme seeks to improve tribal incomes through value addition of their products.
The government has set a target of setting up 600 Van Dhan by September and total 5,000 in the next five years.
Under the scheme, a group of 20 tribal artisans is trained and provided with working capital to add value to the products, which they collect from the jungle, at each Van Dhan Kendra.
At the Aadi Mahotsav, an effort will be made to take tribal commerce to the next level of digital and electronic transactions.
For the first time, the tribal artisans will be accepting payment through major credit/debit cards for which point of sale machines have been provided at each stall.
