Govt to launch an e-marketplace for tribal artisans soon

Tribal artisans will be able to sell their products online soon as the government is working on a specialised e-marketplace. This online portal will be launched on Independence Day.

Managing director of the Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India (TRIFED), Pravir Krishna said that the Tribes India e-Mart will be launched on August 15 and will be just like e-commerce platforms like Amazon or Flipkart, just that it will be exclusively for tribal artisans.

The site is going to be tested through July 30 to August 14 before it goes live.

TRIFED was set up in 1987 to provide fair prices for products made by tribal artisans across the country and the cooperation works under the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry. Krishna said that the tribal artisans will be trained to register themselves as sellers on the site.

Krishna added that TRIFED staff at 15 regional offices across the country and state government officials are working with TRIFED to train the artisans and help them register themselves. The aim is to bring about five lakh tribal artisans online and connect them to a larger national and international market. When the site goes live in August, it will have about 5,000 artisans on board.

When the site goes live it will have five lakh items made by these artisans across 20,000 categories including jewellery, textiles, paintings, home decor, metal crafts etc. The products will also go through a strict quality check and a committee will fix prices for the items. The products will be supplied across the country from local collection centres. And for every ₹100, ₹70 will go to these artisans. A shirt these artisans sell for ₹200 is worth ₹1,000 in Delhi, Krishna said.

He also added that the best organic products will be delivered to buyers who will also have the option to return an item within 15 days if they are not satisfied.