The Tamil Nadu Adi Dravidar Housing and Development Corporation (TAHDCO) will organise next month an exhibition of products made by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes people.
TN Beat Expo will be a two-day event in Chennai with over 350 stalls exhibiting almost 5,000 products. The organisers expect more than 20,000 visitors.
Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare Minister N. Kayalvizhi Selvaraj, Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati , chairman of TAHDCO, U. Mathivanan, and Managing Director of TAHDCO, K.S. Kandasamy told the press that among the States, Tamil Nadu was the first to organise such a business expo.
The exhibition will focus on expansion of the small-scale startups in sectors such as textiles, engineering, defence, electrical appliances, food processing and waste wealth. The event will have buyer-seller meets and conclaves.
“At this expo, the participants will get an opportunity to display their products and will also cross learn with the other exhibitors. In this way, there will be an upliftment in the tribal community,” said the Collector.
“Within the tribal population, 23% are trying to promote themselves as entrepreneurs from the State,” Mr. Kandasamy told The Hindu.
“People, particularly women, used to work in traditional industries like farming, poultry, and dairy. But, they are moving into more contemporary industries like auto driving and renting, and tailoring. Almost 90,000 school uniforms will be sewn by women as part of a uniform stitching project that TAHDCO just acquired,” he said.
