A policy brief on Convergence of CFRR with NTFP-based livelihoods

NTFP gatherers in India, chiefly forest-dependent people numbering around 100 million, have historically been price-takers in the NTFP trade (MoEF and MoTA 2010). An overwhelming majority of forest-dwellers belong to Adivasi or Scheduled Tribe communities. They have remained highly vulnerable to exploitation by lower-rung officials as well as private traders doubling up as moneylenders on account of a lack of literacy and poor knowledge of forest laws.3 As a result, the last five decades have been witness to multiple state-led initiatives to address Adivasi exploitation in the NTFP trade. One of the earliest initiatives in this regard was the establishment of co-operative societies called Large-scale Adivasi Multi-Purpose Societies, better known by the acronym LAMPS, from 1974 onwards in the wake of the recommendations of the Bawa Committee (Lele and Rao 1996; Gowda 1999).