Constraints faced by the tribal women in getting support from Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK) in Satna, Madhya Pradesh

Introduction

The word 'tribe' means a group of families who were bound together by the kinship, usually descending from common mythical or legendary ancestor, living in a contiguous region, speaking common language and having common historical past. Around 200 million tribal population approximately were present in the entire globe, which constitute 4 per cent of the total global population (Srivani et al. 2022) [4] . In India, as per the 2011 Census, the Scheduled Tribe population is around 8.43 crores, which constitutes about 8.6% of the country's total population. The tribal economy is culturally rich, mainly based on agriculture and minor forest produce. (Ministry of Tribal Welfare, 2011) [1] . Tribal population are scattered all over the hilly and forest regions of the country, majority of them inhabitants in Central India, high concentration of tribal's live in Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand (Rajan et al., 2015) [3] . Madhya Pradesh has the largest tribal population in absolute terms, with 15.32 million Scheduled Tribe members, comprising 21.1% of the state's total population. Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand follow with tribal populations making up roughly 30.6% and 26.2% of their state populations, respectively. The major tribal groups in the state include the Gonds, Kol, Bhils, Baigas, and Saharias, among others. These communities traditionally rely on forests, agriculture, and allied activities for their livelihoods and possess rich traditional knowledge of natural resources, plays a crucial role in biodiversity conservation.

Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Vikas Yojana (PMVDVY)

Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Vikas Yojana (PMVDVY) is an initiative of the Government of India which was launched on April 14th, 2018 by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in partnership with TRIFED, which aims to empower tribal communities living in forest areas and improve their livelihoods. The scheme focuses on value addition and marketing of forest produce, helping tribals to increase their income and become self-reliant. Under this scheme, Van Dhan Vikas Kendras have been established in the state, which provide training, financial assistance, and market access to tribal communities.

Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK)

V -Van (Forest), D -Dhan (Products), V -Vikas (Development), K -Kendra's (Centre) (Srivani et al. 2022) [5] .

The Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK) is established as a cluster-based model of tribal entrepreneurship under the Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Yojana (PMVDY). Each VDVK is typically formed by bringing together around 300 tribal members, organized into 15 Self-Help Groups (SHGs) of 20 members each. The setup provides capacity-building and skill training to tribal gatherers in scientific collection, grading, storage, processing, and value addition of Minor Forest Produce (MFPs) such as Amla, Bael, Mahua etc. To strengthen the enterprise model, the Kendras are equipped www.extensionjournal.com with common facility centers that include tools and equipment such as oil expellers, grinders, dryers, packaging units, and storage facilities in order to provide employment opportunities and to improve the livelihood of the tribals.

Materials and Methods

In the present study, a descriptive research design was used and the study was carried out in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh state. Satna district comprises of 5 blocks i.e., Majhgawan, Nagod, Rampur, Sohawal and Unchehra among these, one block, i.e., Majhgawan was selected as it has the highest number of active Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVK's). Majhgawan block comprises of 365 villages, of which 21 villages have established Van Dhan Vikas Kendras. Out of these 12 villages were randomly selected based on the presence of Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK's). From each village, 15 tribal women were selected randomly, resulting in a total of 180 tribal women from 12 villages was taken as the sample for study. The collected data were nalysed by using following appropriate statistical tools.

Percentage

The term 'percentage' means a fraction whose denomination is 100 and the numeration of the fraction is called percentage. For calculating percentage, frequency was multiplied by 100 and divided by total respondents.

Where, P = Percentage X = Frequency of respondents N = Total number of respondents

Mean

Mean was obtained by dividing the sum of the scores by the total number of respondents, according to the following formula -Where, X = Mean Σxi = Sum of all the pairs in a distribution n = Total number of items involved.

Results and Discussion

The study revealed the major constraints faced by the tribal women in getting support from Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK) as follow, majority forest products provide subsistence on a seasonal basis, followed by access to forest produce is controlled by forestry officials, governmentprovided financial support is not enough, limited awareness of the VDVK scheme, lack of marketing facilities, training provided is not up to the required level, forests are located farther away from village area and the scheme covered a small selection of products in that region. The similar findings also supported by Payasi et al. (2023) [2] .

Conclusion

From the findings of the study, it can be concluded that the major constraints faced by the tribal women in getting support from Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK) were, majority forest products provide subsistence on a seasonal basis, followed by access to forest produce is controlled by forestry officials, government-provided financial support is not enough, limited awareness of the Van Dhan Vikas Kendra (VDVK).

References

1. Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Statistical profile of scheduled tribes in India 2011. New Delhi: Government of India; 2011.
2. Payasi S, Parvez R, Bisht K, Vani GK. Attitude of tribal farmers towards forest-based livelihood practices in Shahdol district of Madhya Pradesh. The Pharma Innovation Journal. 2023;SP-12(10):1793-1797.
3. Rajan P, Khare N, Singh SRK. Factors affecting the income generation of tribal farmers in Madhya Pradesh. Journal of Community Mobilization and Sustainable Development. 2015;10(2):147-151.
4. Srivani TNSS, Rajan P, Naberia S, Singh DK. Farmers' perception towards Pradhan Mantri Van Dhan Vikas Yojana in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. Indian Journal of Extension Education. 2022;58(1):165169.
5. Srivani TNSS, Rajan P, Sarkar R, Lingireddy HVL. Knowledge of tribal farmers about VDVK activities in Andhra Pradesh. Asian Journal of Agriculture Extension, Economics & Sociology. 2022;40(11):101108.