India has established ‘National Tribal Research Institute (NTRI) in Delhi to focus on the development of tribes and conservation of their art, culture and heritage. The newly built institute is positioned as to become the nerve centre of tribal research issues and matters in academic, executive and legislative fields as around 10.4 crores tribals living in different parts of the country love their art, craft and cultural threads to be preserved and promoted. Scheduled Tribes (ST) constituting approximately 8.6% of the population of India, also have very close relations with nature and forest geography of the country and may provide great insights.
Realising the importance, the Government of India has recently, focused much on the development of tribes and conservation of their heritage and culture as a priority. The Ministry of Tribal Affairs in line with this vision and its enduring commitment for welfare of tribals, geared itself to ensure sectoral development through enhanced allocation of financial resources, convergence of efforts, re-engineering of planning and implementation mechanism of the Ministry. With an enhanced availability of resources the Ministry is now charting out a new progress path with greater commitment to ensure holistic development of tribal communities. Presently, Tribal Research Institute (TRI) is the research body of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs at the state level, however it focuses more on gathering knowledge and research and less as a think tank for tribal development and preservation of tribal cultural heritage.
NTRI and similar institutions of national eminence have a great role in nation-building as collaboration and networking with reputed research institutes, universities, organizations, academic bodies and resource Centres is essential to further the cause effectively. Monitoring projects of tribal research institutes, centres of excellence and research scholars of NFS and setting up the norms for improvement in the quality of research and training, will pave the way for better understanding of socio-cultural dynamics of the society, history, nature and geography, as tribals are widely considered to be the original inhabitants of the land.
The new institute would also provide policy inputs to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs as well as state welfare departments, design studies and programs that improve or support socio-economic aspects of tribal lifestyles and help in creating and maintaining the database of PMAAGY. It will also provide guidelines in setting and running of tribal museums and showcasing rich tribal cultural heritage of India under one umbrella.
In recent years, tribal artisans, tribal produce and tribal dance troupes have attracted attention as they are invited to showcase their indigenous products and performances across the country. The scheme of Mechanism for Marketing of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) through Minimum Support Price (MSP) and Development of Value Chain for MFP covers various activities. Hence, expanding knowledge base about tribals, their art, culture, heritage and produce is the need of the hour.
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