A day-long Tribal Artisan Mela to identify products made by tribal people and to source them for sale in their outlets across India was conducted by the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd (TRIFED) here on Monday.
Products by tribal people from across the State were put on display at Rajiv Smruthi Bhavan here on Monday to help the officials from the TRIFED to select and send them to its headquarters in New Delhi for evaluation and decision. “Once the HQ evaluates the quality of the product, it is given a tag and is sold in the Tribes of India outlets across India,” DGM-cum-Regional Manager of TRIFED Bhav Singh Maloth said.
A number of NGOs working with tribal people in the State in skill development and market linkages put up selected products on display at the mela. Artisan groups presented clutch bags and handbags with traditional tribal motifs and embroidery work, fruit baskets, hand fans, bamboo crafts like artificial flowers, flower vases, processed ragi powder, turmeric powder, among others. There were some innovations like metal work from Araku, pottery with lacquer finish and artificial jewellery, which are not traditional work of the tribal people but are produced by tribals trained in these skills.
The buyer must be able to identify the source of each of these products when he or she picks it off the shelf in the outlet, District Collector N Yuvaraj suggested.
