CInI to take tech-based initiatives to bring prosperity to tribals

Friday July 24, 2015 , 3 min Read

Tata Trusts’ Central India Initiative (CInI) is looking to develop feasible technology options to bring prosperity to tribal communities in the Central Indian tribal belt, home to 65 per cent of the country’s tribal community.

Building on the success of interventions supported by the Trusts, the initiative aims at bring quality of life and livelihood of 3,00,000 households and developing 42 blocks as regional drivers of growth by 2015-20, a press release by the private sector said in Ranchi.

In the context of the recent launch of the Digital India programme, it said the first roundtable held in Ranchi deliberated with experts ranging from technology experts and entrepreneurs, state agencies, implementation partners, researchers, media donors and resource support organizations participating.

An initiative anchored by CInI, the nodal agency of the Tata Trusts for the initiative, the release said the deliberations led to identification of a shelf of feasible digital technology options, which could support in the making of ‘lakhpati farmers’ in the tribal pockets of the country.

“We are very excited with the outcome of the workshop. This roundtable was only the first step towards generating a shelf of ideas that we can then incubate and (make it) operational,” the release said quoting Vartika Jaini, senior development manager, Tata Trusts and Executive Director, CInI.

She said “While various directions emerged from the discussions that we had, one general agreement has been that technology is poised to play a critical role in disseminating contextual information that can aid in bringing about prosperity amongst tribal farmers.”

The roundtable examined the potential of technology, insights from existing initiatives, technology and adoption trends and that the Initiative was particularly keen to examine the role of technology to support community-to-community sharing of good practices and information, setting up mechanisms through which service providers or those trying to reach tribal communities, could do so to make their content available.

The release also said the initiative aims at bringing prosperity in the region through creating lakhpati farmers – farmers who earn upward of a lakh of rupees from agriculture and allied activities and were part of vibrant community institutions.

A tablet enabled English teaching programme was being launched in 140 schools in Khunti, the release said adding, the Trusts would also collaborate with other agencies and incubate development of the shortlisted ideas, which would work in close collaboration with its field programmes.

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