Coming soon, an e-marketplace only for tribal sellers

Tribal artisans will soon be able to sell their products at the click of a mouse with the government gearing up to launch a specialised e-marketplace for them this Independence Day.

"We will launch the website – Tribes India e-Mart – on Independence Day on August 15. It will be similar to selling your products on e-commerce giants Amazon or Flipkart. The difference is just that it will be only for tribals,” Managing Director of TRIFED Praveer Krishna said.

A trial run of the e-marketplace will continue from July 30 to August 14.

The government had set up Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India in 1987 with an aim to provide fair price for products of tribals across the country.

The agency functions under the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry.

Krishna said tribal artisans will be trained and asked to register themselves as sellers on the website.

"The staff at our 15 regional offices across the country and state government officials working with TRIFED will train these tribals and help them get registered,” he said.

The objective is to bring around 5 lakh tribal artisans online, thus connecting them to a larger national and international market, he said.

Around 5 lakh tribal items across 20,000 categories, including textiles, paintings, home decor items, jewelry, and metal crafts, will be available on the website.

The products of tribal sellers will undergo a strict quality check and a committee will fix prices for each item.

There will be local collection centres from where the products will be supplied across the country.

For every Rs 100, Rs 70 will go to the tribals sellers, Krishna said.

"We will start with around 5,000 tribal artisans on July 30. The target is to connect 5 lakh tribal artisans to the platform and give them access to a larger market,” he said.

"This is in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of an aatmanirbhar (self-reliant) India. Our motto is 'go vocal for local, go tribal',” he said.

The worth of a shirt they (tribals) sell in local markets for Rs 200 is Rs 1,000 in Delhi, Krishna said, explaining the economics behind the idea.

Best quality organic products will be delivered to buyers, who will have the option to return the item within 15 days if they are not satisfied with it, he said.

On Saturday, Union Tribal Affairs Minister Arjun Munda launched tribal products on Government e-Marketplace (GeM).

This will help government departments and officers purchase tribal products directly from the website without going through a lengthy process of floating a tender and receiving bids, Krishna explained.

With more and more people going online to meet their various needs – be it for business operations, shopping and communication, an important strategic push has been to adopt an all-encompassing digitization drive to map and link its village-based tribal producers, Munda said.