Entrepreneurship among Tribal Communities: Culture, Livelihoods and Sustainable Development

Abstract

Tribals represent the most neglected group of Indian society even today. Constituting roughly 8% of the total population, a majority of the tribes continue to live in abject poverty, have poor literacy rates, suffer from malnutrition and disease, and are vulnerable to displacement. At the same time, they also hold repositories of indigenous knowledge and reside in areas which are endowed with rich resources; thus presenting great potential for entrepreneurship to play a catalytic role in the economic development of the group.
Highlighting this factor, NITI Aayog had recently organised India’s first Global Tribal Entrepreneurship Summit in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh, fuelling the entrepreneurial spirit among the tribal community and making tribal entrepreneurship an inseparable component of human entrepreneurship.
This Paper is of the view that tribal entrepreneurship is to be approached from an ‘Anthropological Perspective’. Having its origin in tribal studies, Anthropology, with its concepts of holism, cultural relativism, etic and emic ideologies, and its vast experience of fieldwork among simple societies, is better placed to offer sustainable solutions.
The Paper presents a few examples of tribal entrepreneurial ventures, which are using indigenous ways to build social enterprises in the country.
While studying both the features and shortcomings of enabling frameworks like Tribal Cooperative Marketing Development Federation (TRIFED), Tribal Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (TICCI), Forest Rights Act (FRA) 2006 and Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act 1996, the Paper also attempts to offer suggestions that could enable tribal entrepreneurship to take firm roots and flourish.

Keywords