Tribal livelihoods, have long been grounded in knowledge-based and traditional practices, where creativity is embedded across crafts, traditions, textiles, music, dance, storytelling and languages
Worshang Khaiyar, sustains himself and his family by handcrafting pots and pans made of clay and serpentinite stone available in his village Longpi in Ukhrul district of Manipur. The traditional craft believed to be graced by Goddess Panthoibi by the local Tangkhul Naga tribals is today a major source of their incomes and has put the tiny village on the global map. Similarly, Northy Kuttan, inhabiting the tiny village of Pagalkod Mandh in the district of Udhagamandlam in Tamil Nadu, is making a livelihood out of the traditional art of embroidery used by Toda tribal group settled in the verdant forests of Nilgiris. This GI tagged craft celebrates nature and community bonding and has been very aesthetically placed on table mats, runners, jackets, etc and popularized in contemporary usage. Both Khaiyar and Kuttan earn around Rs. 6-8 lakhs annually from practicing an elevated form of their traditional tribal artforms.
Tribal livelihoods, have long been grounded in knowledge-based and traditional practices, where creativity is embedded across crafts, traditions, textiles, music, dance, storytelling and languages. These are not mere products or services but a living heritage of knowledge, transmitted across generations. The creative assets possessed by tribal communities hold significant economic value, which, when tapped in a sustainable manner while being sensitive to tradition, can fuel orange economy and create income generating activities within their ecosystem.
Widely used to indicate creative economy, orange economy as per UNCTAD (UN Trade and Development) estimates ranges between $2 trillion to $2.25 trillion constituting about 3.1% of global GDP. In India, while robust data exists for handloom and handicrafts sector, data for tribal crafts and livelihoods is poor. However, the strategic implication is unambiguous: tribal art and craft are among the few rural livelihoods that can plug directly into global creative goods demand if authenticity, logistics, and quality systems are in place.
India’s Scheduled Tribe population is estimated at 104 million and constitute approximately 8.6% of its population. Around 700 distinct tribal communities are distributed across different ecological zones: forests, hills, plains and frontier regions. This diversity has direct economic connect. It predicts craft specialization by ecology, such as bamboo and cane in forested regions, metal and clay in mineral belts and textile traditions in weaving corridors. As a result, tribal regions in India have a “multiple economies” reality rather than a single “tribal crafts sector.” Hence, policy design has to be regionally differentiated and not “one craft scheme fits all” and cognizant of raw material constraints, design and quality issues and market linkages.
Currently, the tribal art/craft livelihood ecosystem is shaped by overlapping mandates across ministries and institutions. Ministry of Tribal Affairs is the anchor and works on improving infrastructure critical to growth and provides market linkages through TRIFED (Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation of India Limited) which functions as a key market operator. TRIFED supports Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVKs) which are grassroots units for procurement and value addition and does retail marketing through TRIBES India outlets and aadi mahotsavs/haats to connect producers with buyers and institutional partners. Ministry of Textiles promotes crafts through National Handloom Development Programme (NHDP) and cluster infrastructure through Comprehensive Handloom/Handicrafts Cluster Development Schemes (CHCDS) and maintains the database of artisans. Ministry of MSME supports cluster regeneration and marketability through Scheme of Fund for Regeneration of Traditional Industries (SFURTI), explicitly shifting from supply-driven to market-driven models and emphasizing e-commerce as a channel.
Experience shows that rural livelihoods value-chain is challenged as these are weak, artisans are not directly linked to markets and heavy dependence on middlemen. These factors reduce margins and poor warehousing and aggregation inhibits economies of scale. If we were to further drill analytics down to the level of artisan households, then the pattern that is visible is that of a mixed economy. The artisans treat craft work as supplementary or part-time employment, particularly where agriculture is seasonal or inadequate to meet the needs of the family. In this scenario, poor credit worthiness and enterprise development, lack of marketing linkages and dependence on traders create inconsistent income stream.
However, crafts can be produced at home with low capital with a potential for high returns. Craft interventions are often interventions in women’s employment, income, and bargaining power. Rough estimates tell us that women constitute 56% to over 70% of the 7 million+ artisans and 72.29% of weavers under the handloom sector. Skill transmission is informal and usually passed on from one generation to the other and for tribal art forms, where cultural meaning is embedded in technique and narrative, transmission is both economic (skills) and cultural (authenticity).
Three existing models under Ministry of Tribal Affairs provide pathways to robust linkages: producer collectives like VDVKs which provide shared infrastructure and aggregation; Tribes India stores for connect with the buyer and cooperative institutions at the State level for development of clusters and skill upgradation. For e.g., in Odisha 150 VDVKs are operational with cumulative sales of ₹2,459.91 lakh and integrating about 40,000 tribal producers. Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation, an apex level cooperative body, anchors the marketing and branding of forest and non-forest-based commodities generated by tribal producers.
This underlines a core strategic recommendation for India: tribal art/craft within the orange economy requires better sector accounting, enforceable authenticity/ethical trade infrastructure, and stronger producer-owned distribution to reduce intermediary capture. In the short term, festivals like Bharat Tribes Fest have to be treated as procurement pipelines, standardization and digitalization of the product catalogue and integration of credit support through National ST Finance Development Corporation and schemes like PM Vishwakarma with buyer orders. However, in the long-term government will have to consider building a tribal creative economy satellite account, build export grade compliance and brand architecture and structure an India-appropriate ethical trade code for tribal art. Through these measures, tribal orange economy will rise from the hinterlands and join the journey towards Viksit Bharat @2047.
The author is Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs
