Prime Minister has been at the forefront of taking steps for the welfare of the tribal population of the country while also according due respect to their contribution in the growth and development of the country. In an effort to showcase the tribal culture on the national stage, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate "Aadi Mahotsav", the mega National Tribal Festival, on 16th February at 10:30 AM at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi.

The Aadi Mahotsav, which celebrates the spirit of tribal culture, crafts, cuisine, commerce and traditional art, is an annual initiative of Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation Limited (TRIFED) under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. This year, it is being organised from 16 to 27 February at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium in Delhi.

The programme will showcase the rich and diverse heritage of tribes from across the country in over 200 stalls at the venue. Around 1000 tribal artisans will participate in the Mahotsav. Since 2023 is being celebrated as the International Year of Millets, along with usual attractions like handicrafts, handloom, pottery, jewellery etc., a special focus in the Mahotsav will be on showcasing Shree Anna grown by tribals.

An avenue of showcasing the tribal products and helping the artisans connect with the mainstream population has been the National Tribal Craft Expo – an exhibition named Aadi Mahotsav, in which individual tribal artisans, tribal SHGs, agencies, organisations working with tribals participate.

The Aadi Mahotsav acquaints people with and gives a peek into the rich tribal heritage and culture.

This helps the underprivileged tribes get a bigger market for displaying and selling their arts and crafts. The Aadi Mahotsav is also an opportunity for the artisans to interact directly with art lovers and get first-hand feedback which can then better their creations and designs.

Aadi Mahotsav establishes a direct connection between the masses and the tribal people.

A special feature of the festival is TRIBES India cuisines, created and presented in delectable forms to suit the urban taste by special tribal chefs.

The craft demonstrations about the making of various crafts and diverse entertaining cultural performances are arranged during the Mahotsav.

It is a celebration of tribal art and culture in a holistic manner!

In 2021-21, TRIFED has organized 16 Aadi Mahotsav all across the country.

The most recent Aadi Mahotsav, organised in November 2021, in New Delhi registered a record footfall and was a grand success. More than 500+ artisans attended the festival and transacted business worth over Rs 20 Crores in the two-week-long festival. More than 500 cultural troupes performed at the festival.

The festival, graced by several prominent personalities, had on display over 240 stalls and saw a multitude of rich cultural performances. It was a stupendous success.

Team TRIFED was established in August 1987 under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 by the Government of India as a National level Cooperative body under the administrative control of the then Ministry of Welfare of India, with the basic mandate of bringing about socio-economic development of tribals of the country by institutionalizing the trade of Minor Forest Produce (MFP) & Surplus Agricultural Produce (SAP) collected/ cultivated by them.

As a market developer and service provider, the objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products on which the lives of tribals depends heavily as they spend most of their time and derive a major portion of their income.

The philosophy behind this approach is to empower tribal people with knowledge, tools and pool of information so that they can undertake their operations in a more systematic and scientific manner.

The approach involves capacity building of the tribal people through sensitization, formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and imparting training to them for undertaking a particular activity, exploring marketing possibilities in national as well as international markets, creating opportunities for marketing tribal products on a sustainable basis and creating a brand.

TRIFED's MSP for MFP & VanDhan program is in line with the "The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers ( Forest Rights Act, 2006 )", a key forest legislation passed for securing protection & livelihood of poor tribals and concerns with the rights of forest-dwelling communities to land and other natural resources.

The ultimate objective of TRIFED is socio-economic development of tribal people in the country by way of marketing development of the tribal products on which the lives of tribals depends heavily as they spend most of their time and derive major portion of their income.

“Promote sustainable livelihood systems for tribal people by marketing development and ensuring remunerative price for their products, provide minimum support price and value addition of Non-Timber Forest Produce (Minor Forest Produce), empower them through meticulous capacity building, augment their resources substantially, develop marketing partnership with Central/State Government agencies and other development partners through establishing convergence and coherence in activities.” The approach of marketing development of tribal products envisages TRIFED’s role as a facilitator and service provider.

The philosophy behind this approach is to empower tribal people with knowledge, tools and pool of information so that they can undertake their operations in a more systematic and scientific manner.

It involves capacity building of the tribal people through sensitization, formation of Self Help Groups (SHGs) and imparting training to them for undertaking a particular activity, exploring marketing possibilities in national as well as international markets, creating opportunities for marketing tribal products on a sustainable basis, creating a brand and providing other services.

Home to a large number of tribal people, known as Adivasis, India has the second largest tribal population in the world. Tribal Communities are a integral segment of Indian society since the days of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. The tribal people through the country have rich traditions, cultures and heritage with unique life styles and customs. Despite some regional variation, the tribes share many common traits, including living in relative geographical isolation, and being relatively more homogeneous and more self-contained than the non-tribal social groups.

The areas inhabited by the tribal constitute a significant part of the under developed areas of the country. India’s population includes nearly one hundred million tribal people. The two main regions of tribal settlement are the country’s northeastern states bordering China and Burma, and the highlands and plains of its central and southern regions.

The latter is home to more than 80 per cent of the tribes, which differ from the northeastern tribes in ethnicity and in having experienced greater “intrusion of the Indian mainstream and of the pan-Indian model of the state, society, economy and culture”.

There are also differences in the extent to which the tribes interact with non-tribal communities. While the northeastern tribes are usually isolated communities, the tribes in peninsular India may at times coexist with non-tribal people.

The Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes Commission appointed by the President of India on 28 April 1960 pursuant to Article 339 of the Constitution of India in its report of 14 October 1961 stated that “As these groups are presumed to form the oldest ethnological sector of the population, the term “Adivasi” (‘Adi’= original and ‘Vasi’= inhabitant) has become current among certain people.

The International Labour Organization has classified such people as “indigenous”. The Government of India has initiated a number of steps to develop socio economic conditions of tribal population in the country.

One of those initiatives led to the formation of Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED).

Coming into existence in 1987, TRIFED is a national-level apex organisation functioning under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. TRIFED has its Head Office located in New Delhi and has a network of 15 Regional Offices located at various places in the country.