Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Vikas Mission Backs 4,172 Van Dhan Kendras

The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has set out, in a background note, how the Pradhan Mantri Janjatiya Vikas Mission (PMJVM) is rebuilding the way India's forest-dwelling tribal families earn from what they gather. Of the country's 10.4 crore Scheduled Tribes, a large number depend on Minor Forest Produce (MFP) for between 20 and 40 per cent of their yearly earnings, and for decades that produce passed to middlemen at rates that did not even cover the labour behind it.

How the Mission is built

PMJVM, which began in 2021-22, first gathers collectors into self-help groups and then clusters them into community-owned Van Dhan Vikas Kendras (VDVKs). Fifteen self-help groups, about 300 collectors, form one Kendra, and at least 60 per cent of a Kendra's members must belong to Scheduled Tribe communities. The Van Dhan Yojana, launched on 14 April 2018, sits inside the Mission and powers this model. Each Kendra is given primary processing equipment such as cutting and sieving tools, decorticators, dryers and packaging tools, training for 30 members in scientific harvesting and value addition, working capital arranged through banks and the NSTFDC, and storage and transport on rent.

Where the Mission stands

As of March 2026, 4,172 Kendras had been sanctioned and 12.48 lakh tribal members linked to them. Of these, 2,911 Kendras are functional, with sales of roughly Rs 168 crore as on 31 July 2026. Minimum Support Price now stands notified for 87 items of minor forest produce. Buying is done by TRIFED through state implementing agencies at the pre-fixed rate whatever the market happens to pay; since 2013-14 state governments have bought 2,67,954 metric tonnes of produce worth Rs 693.98 crore.

The legal base

The Forest Rights Act of 2006 treats minor forest produce as every non-timber produce of plant origin, counting bamboo, cane, honey, wax, lac, tendu leaves, medicinal herbs, roots and tubers among them, and gives tribals the right to collect it and sell it. The PESA Act of 1996 separately vests ownership of such produce in tribal Gram Panchayats. Kendras are placed around local haat bazaars, of which tribal belts have more than 5,000, and these markets are being rebuilt in phases with permanent structures, storage, drinking water, shade and weighing equipment.

Janjatiya Gaurav Pakhwada

The note comes in the middle of Janjatiya Gaurav Pakhwada, run from 1 to 15 November 2026 and closing on Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas, the birth anniversary of Dharti Aaba Bhagwan Birsa Munda, which the Centre declared in 2021. More than 300 tribal projects are to be taken up that day, 228 of them ready for inauguration and 74 for foundation stones, while the Jan-HIT Portal and the National FRA Digital Platform are to be launched and Tribal Research Institutes hold over 160 activities in 19 States and Union Territories.