Tribal Research and Training Centre, Gujarat Vidyapith was established in the year 1962 though the order of the Government of India and fully funded by the Government of Gujarat. The main activities of the Centre has been research, training, and maintaining Tribal museum. Currently, the Centre is functioning as a part of the Gujarat Vidyapith Trust and it is independent from any support from the Government of Gujarat. The Centre is focussing on the extension activities of Gujarat Vidyapith.
The Centre was established with the intention of conducting research and evaluation of different development schemes for Tribal communities of Gujarat aligning it with the classical and cultural ethnographic parameters. The Centre worked as a Think Tank and used to provide primary data for Tribal development to the Department of Trabal Development, Government of Gujarat. The Centre had carried out 503 research projects till the year 2020.
The Centre used to conduct training programmes on the topics of Tribal life, culture, development programmes in different Tribal regions of Gujarat. This training programmes was conducted for different stakeholders such as government employees, elected representatives, Tribal youth, and grass root workers. The Centre acted as a bridge between Tribal people and government employees for the implementation of development schemes.
Tribal Research and Training Centre has created and developed a vivid and lively Tribal museum showcasing the diversity of lifestyle, culture, utensils, furniture, clothing, equipment and tools, dwellings, and livelihood of all the major Tribal communities of Gujarat. This is the only ethnographic museum of Gujarat which displays life size diarromas of all the major 26 Tribal communities of Gujarat. The Centre also works towards collection, preservation, and documentation of Tribal arts and materials in order to preserve the tradition of Tribal life and culture.
Tribal Research and Training Centre, Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad has been publishing half-yearly magazine named Adivasi Gujarat since the year 1978. Before the publication of this magazine, the centre used to publish another magazine named Adivasi Vartman which was merged with Adivasi Gujarat. This magazine publishes research articles on different aspects of Tribal life and culture. These research articles are mostly based on field-based research activities. The magazine publishes articles in Gujarati, Hindi, and English languages. Apart from this, the Centre has also published 37 books.