The Central government is committed to an integrated approach to ensure health, education, better living and livelihood in the tribal forest villages with women's welfare on priority, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda said on Saturday.
The aim is to boost institutional efforts to make the tribals economically and socially self-reliant. This is possible by ensuring overall development with regular employment opportunities, Munda told the media before leaving for New Delhi.
The Minister was on a two-day visit to Chhattisgarh.
Appreciating the Chhattisgarh government, he said it has done good work of covering 57 forest minor produce under the minimum support price.
Examples of Mahuwa oil production, tamarind and its value addition processing units will further enhance it. This working model can be adopted in other states also, he said.
Talks are on with Amazon to ensure quality management of tribal products and value-added products with geo-tagging for the world market, the Minister said.
The new education policy ensures protection of tribal ethnicity and its languages. The schools will be run in the Central Board of Secondary Education pattern with inclusive approach, he said.
A TRIFOOD centre is being developed at Jagdalpur so that forest produce and agro-products of the tribe can be processed and packed for national and international markets, he added.