Indian Institute of Management, Udaipur organized a workshop on ‘Tribal Livelihood’ on June 17^th 2015 as a member of Manthan Consortium. Rajasthan Grameen Aajeevika Vikas Parishad (RGAVP) provided a collaborative support for making the workshop a success.

Objective of the workshop, to create a learning platform where experience and knowledge sharing can take place with RGAVP, MANTHAN partners and NGOs working on livelihood issues in Udaipur was gainfully achieved.

The event flagged off with a welcome note from Prof. Janat Shah – Director, IIMU who presented his views on the part that educational institutes could play in developing an eco-system of livelihood for the marginalized.  He also said that IIMU holds a great responsibility to contribute towards Research, Development and Strategizing initiatives on income generation for the tribal.  He considered the workshop to be an excellent platform for academicians, practitioners, govt. officials to work together in the direction.

The event was attended by Faculty from other Management institutes of the country including MDI, XIMB, XLRI, TISS, and BRLF (Bihar Rural Livelihood Foundation). The institutes are also members of the Manthan consortium.

Prof. Shambu Prasad from Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), Gujarat initiated and moderated the discussion by first briefing the audience about the Manthan (Management Academic institutes Network for Transforming Human Resources through Action and Knowledge), a three year old consortium and its objectives of strengthening the livelihood ecosystem in India.

The consortium has researched and developed knowledge platform, e-groups, learning support, strategy advisory support through its member institutes.

Workshop was further led by the Mr. Hardeep Chopra, RGAVP representative, who work for the livelihood initiatives in various districts of Rajasthan. The initiatives have helped more than 55 lakh tribal men and women in the state. The great cause has been promoted at large scale by creating Self-help groups and Village Organizations (VOs) for women. The initiative aims to ensure income of above 1 lakh for the families that are part of SHG or VOs. Giving testimony to the fact, women from tribal areas joined the workshop to share their experience and benefit from the RGAVP initiatives. RGAVP believes that the success stories would grow exponentially in future with more people joining hands using the platform of such workshops.

The event acted as perfect platform for majority participants. Priyanka Singh, CEO of Seva Mandir also contributed to the discussion with her views on the issues prevalent in tribal livelihood. She expressed her views on income source majorly depending on natural resources and labor. She urged various stakeholders and participants to formulate policies that are beneficial for the poor in the longer term.

The workshop progressed by presentations on livelihood models.  The speakers shared their learnings and experiences from the initiatives pursued and research done.

The speakers included Kalpana Pant from Chaitanya Foundation, Zulfiquar Haider, CEO form BRLF, Rama Kandrappa from ILRT and Dileep Gupta  from IGS, Abha Mishra from Aajeevika Bureau and Avanish Kumar  from MDI.

On conclusion of the workshop, everyone appreciated the concept and the content of the workshop.  They also requested to have frequent such sessions to keep the motivation high among the participants.