The Government of India is actively promoting cooperative institutions engaged in minor forest produce, handicrafts, organic products, and other livelihood activities in tribal areas, including specific focus on tribal districts of Jharkhand and Gujarat. The National Cooperation Policy, 2025 emphasizes strengthening cooperatives of weaker and marginalized sections, including tribal communities, and promotes value addition, processing and marketing of minor forest produce.
States and Union Territories are being encouraged to strengthen existing forest-produce societies and develop them as multipurpose cooperative societies according to State Cooperative Societies Acts and local economic potential. The National Cooperative Database is being utilized to identify gaps in cooperative coverage and facilitate district-wise planning.
The Tribal Co-Operative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited (TRIFED) leads the implementation of the Van Dhan programme for collection and selling of Minor Forest Produce in districts with predominantly forest-dwelling tribal populations. Under this programme, tribal community-owned Van Dhan Vikas Kendra Clusters are established with 100% government assistance provided to collectives in the form of SHGs/Van Dhan Kendras.
Financial assistance is available to eligible cooperative societies under schemes of the National Cooperative Development Corporation, concerned Central Ministries, and State Governments, subject to applicable scheme guidelines and project approval. Specifically, NCDC disbursed ₹44.40 crore in Jharkhand and ₹2,302.22 crore in Gujarat during the reported period under its overall programmes across various cooperative sectors.
Key measures to enhance tribal household income through cooperative institutions include: promotion of aggregation, processing, value addition, branding and marketing of minor forest produce; enabling cooperative societies to undertake diversified activities under Model Bye-laws including Common Service Centres and input supply; facilitating market linkages through national-level cooperative societies like National Cooperative Organics Limited and National Cooperative Exports Limited; computerization and digitization of PACS to improve transparency and efficiency; and ensuring representation of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes on Boards of multi-State cooperative societies as per the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 as amended in 2023.
The National Cooperative Exports Limited provides an institutional platform for export of surplus produce from cooperatives in tribal areas, while the National Cooperative Organics Limited supports aggregation, organic certification, branding and marketing of organic products under the "Bharat Organics" brand. This information was formally provided by Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation, Shri Amit Shah, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.