Sustainable Livelihood for Tribal Youth

Training tribal youth on value addition to natural resources for sustainable livelihoods

Jharkhand is a mineral-rich state accounting for 40% of India’s mineral resources. Despite this natural wealth, which is exploited by outsiders, rural communities suffer from widespread poverty with over 39 per cent of the population living below the poverty line. Over 92% of the population live in remote, rural villages and is home to 32 different Scheduled Tribes. With literacy rate well below the national level, and high unemployment rates, the Scheduled Tribes of Jharkhand are some of the most neglected and marginalised people in India.

Development Focus has been working in Jharkhand among the Tribal communities since the inception of the organisation. Our aim is to open livelihood opportunities for Tribal boys and girls facilitating them to add value to locally available resources and effectively market them. With a strong focus on empowering young women, both men and women in the 18-25 age group will be skilled along with entrepreneurship to make them economically self-sufficient. The project will focus on youth in extremely poor districts of Jharkhand.

Communities will be facilitated to identify Relevant and Marketable skills using participatory tools. The identified skills will relate to locally available resources and online market opportunities. A Unique Selling Point of this project will be that NGOs, as “Outsiders” will not go in with a list of prescribed skills. The intervention will seek to initiate new livelihood activities that will strengthen the rural economy as well as meet the goods and service needs of these rural communities. With long term impacts of self-sufficiency, growth, economic development, and improved status of youth - especially women - this initiative hopes to demonstrate how skills development can transform the lives and communities of impoverished youth. The project will lead towards long-term sustainable development by providing new livelihood opportunities. It will be a strong deterrent to Unsafe Migration, which is a major social evil in these regions.