About the Programme

• In 2020, the GOAL (Going Online As Leaders) programme was launched by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) in partnership with Meta (formerly Facebook).
• The programme is designed to mentorship tribal youth through digital mode. 

Objectives of the programme

• The programme intends to upskill and empower 5,000 tribal youths in the first phase to harness the full potential of digital platforms and tools to learn new ways of doing business, explore and connect with domestic and international markets.

• In this program, 5000 scheduled tribe youth (to be called ‘Mentees’) will get an opportunity to get training by experts from different disciplines and fields (to be called ‘Mentors’). There will be 1 mentor for 2 mentees.
• The mentees and mentors will be selected based on their inputs in such a way that it represents tribal youth from varied professions and has representation from urban and rural areas across India.
• The program will focus on three core areas – Digital Literacy, Life Skills and Leadership and Entrepreneurship, and on sectors such as Agriculture, Art &  Culture, Handicrafts & Textiles, Health, Nutrition, among others.

Why in News?

• The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has launched the second phase of the GOAL Programme (GOAL 2.0) with an aim to digitally upskill tribal youth by promoting entrepreneurship and opening up opportunities for them using digital technology.
• The program aims to upskill and digitally enable tribal youth via Facebook live sessions and Meta Business Coach, a digital learning tool.

Reference:

1. https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1842799