The
campaign of adivasis in the Gudalur valley to get their traditional
rights over forest resources recognised by the government under the
newly enacted Forest Rights Act has reached a crucial stage. Till date,
over 1230 families have submitted their individual claims and another
280 families will be staking their claims soon. Similarly, 235 villages
have given their community claims and another 55 villages are in the
process of preparing their community claims. All these claims have been
forwarded by the 29 Forest Rights Committees that were constituted by
the Special Adivasi Gram Sabhas.
Verification of
Forest Rights Claims in progress by SDLC
These
claims are being processed by the Sub Divisional Level Committee right
now. As a first step, the RDO of Gudalur, accompanied by the respective
revenue and forest department officials, visited villages falling under
four gram sabhas. Claims of around 48 families were personally verified
by the team and the possession of this land with the adivasis was
confirmed. Similar verification will be done by the SDLC with respect
to the other claims as well.
This personal visit by the
government officials to the adivasi villages is proving to be another
important mechanism to highlight the other development needs of the
adivasi community. For example, the poor housing situation, lack of
proper drinking water source and ration cards in many villages was
witnessed by the RDO and he assured the sangam members that he will
represent our demands to the district administration.
Revenue Divisional
Officer, Gudalur issuing community certificate
Another major victory of AMS was the series of special camps organised
in adivasi villages to issue community certificates to adivasi
families. This has been a major policy victory for AMS to get the
officials visit the villages and issue certificates to the people,
after due verification. The first such camp was organised in
Srimadurai, where over 250 families received their certificates. The
second one was organised in Nellakota village, where around 330
families got their certificates. Earlier, all these families
would
have spent at least Rs.200 each in getting these certificates - this is
a very conservative estimate, assuming that they will get the
certificate in just one visit. So, in all, AMS would have helped the
community save at least Rs.100000 in these two camps itself.
Series
of such camps are planned for other villages as well. AMS activists are
helping the government officials in verifying the applications of the
adivasis and organising these camps. We thank the local government
officials in extending their services to the needy villages on a
priority basis.
Village Specific Health Planning
During the fourth week of
February 2010, the Area Centre Teams (ACTs) of AMS participated in an
intensive workshop. This was preliminary exercise spread over
2
days and attended by all the ACT representatives
and professionals
associated with ASHWINI. Dr.Vikram Gupta and Ms.Aneka Paul from Sir
Ratan Tata Trust also took part in the proceedings and gave their
inputs.
The main objective of this workshop was to lay the
foundation for making village specific health plans at the Area Centre
level. During the last decade of work, the activists and
institutions associated with AMS concentrated on improving the
technical skills of the team members in various sectoral fields. This
focus resulted in planning of development interventions also being
carried out in a sectoral level. However, during the last few years,
the focus is now on helping the Area Centre teams engage in planning,
monitoring and review of various activities at the village level itself.
Vikram and Aneka of
SRTT interacting with the ACT members
This workshop was an important step in this direction. The Area Teams
came out with suggestions, new ideas and mechanisms to prepare such
village specific health plans. For this, a minimum level of technical
knowledge is required for all the ACT members, so that planning of
health programmes and monitoring of health status by the team more
meaningfully. The team went through exercises like understanding all
the health records being maintained at the Area Centres and the
importance of the health indicators.
Group discussion by
adivasi Area Centre Team members
The
groups also discussed some common minimum standards that are to be
maintained in terms of health services provided to the adivasi
community. Given the constitution of Area Health Fund and the plans to
start using this fund to meet immediate health needs of the adivasi
community at the Area Centre level, this decentralisation of health
planning has come at an appropriate time.
Similar exercise is being planned regarding the community mobilisation
and education sectors as well.
Leadership Development of Adivasi Youth
Between March
17th and 20th, we had two leadership development programmes for adivasi
youth. One was for the adivasi health team members and the second one
was for the adivasi teacher trainees. The focus of these two programmes
was different, but both underlined our emphasis on investing on the
leadership qualities of our adivasi youth so that they can play a
crucial role in bringing about change.
Julie George
conducting the workshop
Ms.Julie George,
Programme Director (India & Nepal), Skillshare
International
conducted the leadership development programme for the health team
members. This intensive programme focused on institutional leadership
issues, the need for understanding the various units within an
organisation, the role of leaders in developing and emphasising a clear
vision for the organisation, conflict resolution, significance of
positive communication.
Shantha reporting
about discussions in her group
She also focused on management functions
like fund raising, accountability and transparency and the need for
every team member to feel that they have the potential to perform
leadership functions, whatever be their designation within the
organisation. The health team members found the training very useful
and we thank Ms.Julie George for conducting this workshop in Gudalur.
The
second programme was conducted by Stan for the 17 adivasi teacher
trainees in Madhuvana Estate. The focus of this programme was to expose
the trainees on community leadership, as most of them are
expected
to work in the villages. The terms 'Education' and 'Teacher' were
defined using broad parameters : "Education is the combination of
knowledge, skills and importantly, values". In this context, the
participants understood the larger purpose of their training - in
providing leadership to the community on all the issues where their
knowledge and skills can be of use.
Teacher trainees,
Stan and KTS in the leadership camp
In
all the communities, there was a natural mechanism to pass on
knowledge, skills and values from one generation to other. School
education should complement this, rather than undermining it.
Being privileged youth from the community - in view of the
intensive inputs they are getting from the teacher training programme,
the trainees realised that they have a life-time commitment to help
their community in various ways.
Participants
discussing in small groups
The
motivation of the participants at the end of the camp was very high,
judged from their response in the last session. For the
question,
"what are the areas in which they feel they can provide leadership to
the community?", all the groups came out with a wide range of issues -
not merely restricted to teaching children. Their understanding of the
problems faced by the community - gravity of alcoholism, need for
savings, protection of cultural values etc. - was good and the ways by
which they will try to help the community tackle these problems were
inspiring.
Meeting with Nagapattinam's Fishing community
Adivasis and
fishermen have many things in common. Traditionally, their livelihoods
depended on a natural common property resource - forests and ocean
respectively. Culturally, there are many things similar in these two
societies. Hence, it was a great learning experience for our Animators
to visit the fishing community in and around Nagapattinam. This
exposure visit was facilitated by the financial assistance of Christian
Aid.
Economic activities
of the fishing community under study
A 25-member team from Gudalur went to Nagapattinam on this 4-days
exposure visit. The most important thing the team wanted to learn was
the strong local governance system there, represented by the village
panchayats. In spite of being completely involved in a monetary
economy, the fishing community has successfully preserved their
traditional structures and unity. Even after Tsunami, when crores of
rupees were invested in the community through hundreds of
organisations, the community has managed to continue the supremacy of
their village panchayats and the unity within the community is
striking. This motivated the team to continue our work on strengthening
the local governance in adivasi villages and to build on our cultural
strengths.
Discussion with
Tsunami-affected fishing families in their new houses
The team visited the villages which were affected by the Tsunami few
years ago and talked to the families about the relief and
rehabilitation aspects. Since disaster preparedness has become an
important requirement for all village level activists, this interaction
has helped us understand issues related to this.
We visited the cooperative societies associated with the South Indian
Federation of Fishermen Societies (SIFFS) as well. SIFFS has been doing
an excellent job in terms of providing technical and financial support
to the fishermen societies, making a tremendous change in their
precarious livelihood situation. The team also visited one of their
Boat making units.
Discussion with
women Self Help Group members
SNEHA was another organisation visited by us. SNEHA has been organising
the women in the fishing community around the issue of savings and
credit. Large number of Self Help Groups (SHG) have been organised by
SNEHA in the fishing villages, who handle hundreds of thousands of
rupees in transaction every year. Though only men go for fishing in the
sea, the fish vending trade in the shore is largely in the hands of
women there. The women SHGs provide the credit required for this trade
to their women members. Given our new initiative on promoting savings
in adivasi villages, there were some lessons to be learnt from the
fisherwomen.
A busy fish market
The entire programme was coordinated and facilitated by BEDROC, an NGO
specialising on disaster management. Our ex-colleague, Monica
(currently working with BEDROC) organised the logistics and we thank
her support.
Daniel, the cyclist travels all the way from UK
In the last
week of January, we had the honour of receiving an amazing visitor from
UK. Mr.Daniel Bent or Danny, as he prefers to be called. Danny
traveled all the way from UK to Gudalur in his
bicycle! He
was raising funds for Actionaid, a UK based charity - till date, he has
raised 5000 pounds for Actionaid and about 1900 pounds to support our
education work. Except the brief
travel in boat when he crossed from UK to France, he covered
the
entire journey of over 15000 kilometres in his cycle. An amazing feat.
The entire AMS team is overwhelmed by Danny's expedition and
determination to come to Gudalur - crossing many countries in Europe
and Asia.
Daniel, when he
entered Gudalur
A simple welcome party was organised in Vidyodaya school when he
reached Gudalur. Danny was quite emotional at the end of his epic
journey and was lost for words. But, he explained how this was a
20-year dream of his; how he was inspired to do this 'green' journey
when a child challenged, 'how he can realise his dream of traveling
around the world, but not to destroy the environment'.
Welcome function in
Vidyodaya School
The question that kept cropping up in the minds of our children and
many of the adults is this : What was Danny's motivating
factor to
undergo this hardship over six months and what kept him going? Danny
explained it with a simple word : LOVE. He had designed the logo for
his expedition with this simple word.
Cycle expedition -
a symbol of LOVE
Danny stayed with us for a few days and we had the pleasure of inviting
his parents and sister too at Gudalur. Danny had inspired many of our
young people with his tremendous achievement and all of us
in AMS
thank Daniel Bent and Actionaid for giving us an opportunity to part of
this event.
Dr.Mallika Sarabai's performance in Chembakolli
- Mari Thekaekara
"Adivasis
dance for everyone. How nice if you
could dance for them." I remarked,
not completely seriously, to Mallika
Sarabhai, India's superstar danseuse. What
a lovely idea, she responded. I'm sure
it can be done. I'll let you
know when I'm next in South India.
Barely a week later, I received an
email from Mallika's executive assistant, Jigna.
Dr.Sarabhai and the group are performing at Thanjavur Temple on March
19th. They can travel to Gudalur on 20th and perform for you on 21st.
They will leave for Ahmedabad on 22nd.
And
so on 21st March, the troupe from Darpana
danced in Chembakoli village to an audience
of mainly forest dwellers.
The adivasis
knew little about theatre or formal dance, but
they were rivetted. The poem and the dance
performance had a universal appeal. The
substance of the poem was lyrical.
Mallika Sarabhai
Based
on a poem written by Mrinalini Sarabhai
and choreographed by mother and daughter,
it covers main concerns that plague India today - communal
violence, dowry deaths, womens issues, racial problems, national
disintegration, ecological imbalance environmental pollution and other
connected subjects. It is a plea to understand and imbibe once more the
ancient prayer of the oldest literature of our country.
The
dancing and choreography was perfect,
more powerful than anything the people
here had ever witnessed before. They were
held spellbound even though the song
was in Hindi and they understood
not a word. They didnt need to. The
dance spoke to them in a language
comprehensible to everyone. The words
became superfluous.
Bringing Gujarat dances to Gudalur
What struck
a chord with the greatest force was the
action of the dancers cutting trees. It
was interesting that we, the non
adivasis immediately thought Chipko. The visual
was of trees being cut with a
great destructive forceful swing of the axe
and people rushing to protect the
trees, hugging them. But several adivasis
remarked It shows that trees are our
life, without them we will die.
Mallika
has promised to return end April
to choreograph a song composed by
the adivasis to kickstart an AMS
anti alcohol campaign in Gudalur taluk.
Snippets
A major campaign has been conducted in adivasi
villages to get everyone enrolled
in the Health
Insurance programme of the Government of Tamilnadu. Special drive was
organised in the last week of March in all the 8 Area Centres of AMS to
get the left-out families also enrolled in the programme. Costs of
treating about 51 high-cost surgical procedures will be completely
covered for all enrolled members.
An intensive campaign is being carried out in all the
adivasi villages to get Birth Certificates for all adivasi children
studying in
schools. A special procedure is being worked out by AMS in consultation
with the Magistrate of Gudalur and the revenue officials, in an effort
to fulfill one of the long-standing demand of more than 500 adivasi
children.
Charities Advisory Trust, UK sanctions financial
assistance towards the advocacy and legal activities of Adivasi
Munnetra Sangam. Services of two lawyers are being engaged for this
purpose.
Construction of new Area Centre buildings in Erumadu,
Devala and Gudalur with the financial assistance of Japanese
government has been completed. A request to construct 1st floor in the
Gudalur centre is pending with the Japanese Embassy. As soon as
permission is received from them, the remaining construction will be
completed and all the 3 buildings will be inaugurated.
Regular updates
about
our other
activities are available in the newsletters of Ashwini
and
Just
Change
.
