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| Agragamee,
through dynamic people's organisations such as Ama Sangathan, has enabled
the tribal community, especially women, to raise their voice on several
issues. Rights to minimum wages, rights over land and the delivery of
government programs have become of primary concern to tribal communities.
And rightly so. |
DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES
Village Forest Protection
Forests are an integral part of life and the protection of these is a
basic duty, which many have neglected. Population explosion, increasing
dependency on agriculture, the monopoly of the government all contribute
significantly to the rapid depletion of forests in the tribal region.
Due to the gradual but steady loss of this valuable natural resource,
the tribal lifestyle is adversely affected.
Tribals are deprived of availing even bare necessities like fodder and
fuel wood.
Kashipur has extremely rich natural resources and tribals here remain
dependent on agriculture (either shifting cultivation on the hills slopes
and other uplands, or as share cropping on the settled lands of landlords)
and the forests for their livelihood. Due to the gradual loss of their
natural resources, the people have been hit the hardest.
Realising the importance of forests to tribal livelihood, members of Ama
Sangathan conducted meetings in every village, mobilising people to preserve
their forests, enabling them to benefit by sustainable use of this natural
resource. Members of Ama Sangathan have introduced forest protection measures
in their respective villages and carry the campaign to neighbouring villages.
Their efforts are resulting in an awakening of the people. They now realise
the need to protect and restore their environment.
Minimum Wage
In spite of the government having fixed the minimum wage for day labourers,
it has not been strictly followed. The labourers continue to remain ignorant
of their rightful wages even though the government had declared the wage
rate way back in 1987.
Since almost all tribals are landless labourers in this region and depend
on wage labour for their livelihood, the moneylenders and contractors
take full advantage of the cheap tribal labour available, thereby unscrupulously
exploiting them.
In this area, the government construction works are mostly taken over
by the non-tribals and local moneylenders on a contract basis. Taking
advantage of the tribals, contractors pay Rs 15 or Rs 20 as wage labour
against the minimum labour wage of Rs 30, fixed by the Government. However,
Ama Sangathan is up-to-date when it comes to matterns of this sort. In
a move to solve this problem, Ama Sangathan conducts awareness campaigns
and meetings to fight for justice and their right to a minimum wage.
Anti-Liquor Movement
The tribals spend a major portion of their income on alcohol, with the
women bearing most of the consequences. It is not uncommon to see tribals
mortgaging or selling their assets to meet this unwarranted daily expense.
The women took up this matter first, struggling against local liquor brewers
who were carrying on their illicit business in collusion with the local
police. The matter caught the attention of the Chief Minister, who declared
a statewide ban on country liquor. For the tribal women, this was a major
victory. The brewing of illegal country liquor has not, however, come
to a standstill. But the women can confront the local breweries without
the threat of being harassed by litigation.
Ama Sangathan has helped address this issue by organising movements, campaigns
and numerous awareness programmes, succeeding in bringing the magnitude
of the problem to the notice of the State government through Block and
District administration.
Collection and Marketing of Hill Brooms
Tribals, being closely associated with the land on which they live, depend
mostly on the minor forest produce of that area. They get mahul flowers
nad seeds, tamarind, mango, hill brooms, sal leaves, fibre, kusum, fodder,
gum and fuel wood form the forests. Among these, the hill brooms, mahul
flowers, sal leaves and tamarind are collected in large quantities, since
they have a good market value. The tribals laboriously collect these from
the forest, but are deprived of the major benefits as they are forced
to sell them to the agents of the leaseholders at a minimum price. Ironically,
the Tribal Development Cooperative Corporation (TDCC), which has been
formed to prevent the exploitation of tribal communities, is often hand
in glove with these agents and only compounds this type of abuse.
When the tribal women brought the hill brooms to the weighing centres,
stones, instead of weights were used. The brokers would pay for 5 kg when
the amount brought in by the women were 10 kg. The women then decided
to take matters into their own hands, enabling greater control over the
marketing of their commodities.
After years of struggling with the TDCC, the DFO and the Collector, Ama
Sangathan and the TDCC jointly received the lease for the collection and
marketing of the minor forest produce of Kashipur. Ama Sangathan has transacted
up to 20 tonnes of hill brooms in a year. The finished products are sold
in Vishakapatnam, Hyderabad and Bhubaneswar. The processing of the same
has helped create 1000 man-days of employment and has helped the price
of hill brooms to go beyond the support price issued by the government.
This has ensured a stable price of Rs. 15 per kg, when the support price
was only Rs. 10.
Ama Sangathan has created links with ORMAS (Orissa Rural Development and
Marketing Society) as well as with broom trading parties in Bhopal, Villai,
Mumbai and Kolkata, which has helped share the responsibility of marketing
the finished product.
Entrepreneurship Development Programme
Ama Sangathan has also undertaken several development programmes. However,
entrepreneurship development for tribal women's collectives remains its
major focus. The tribal areas yield a wide range of products from extensively
used forest resources like brooms, tamarind and agricultural cash crops.
Ama Sangathan has built up a micro enterprise on MFP and surplus agricultural
products in different panchayat level mahila mandals. The Dangasil mahila
mandal is involved in turmeric processing whereas the Mandibisi mahila
mandal processes hill brooms and daal. However, there continue to remain
hindrances to channelling these products to the mainstream market. Keeping
this in mind, Ama Sangathan has played a role in finding market linkages
for their products. The various goods are bought, processed and sold by
Ama Sangathan.
In a move towards becoming self-reliant and economically independent,
Ama Sangathan has started its entrepreneurship activities in Kashipur
Block. Making use of the progressive minor forest produce policy of the
Orissa government, and with the ready availability of a variety of forest
and agri-products that can be channelled into the market, Ama Sangathan
has helped the tribal producer immensely by entering into the market.
It continues to moderate the market forces and ensures that sale prices
of tribal commodities are maintained at a reasonable level. It has successfully
able to break the monopoly of the middleman in the tribal regions and
helped tribal families gain Rs 1500 to Rs 5000 by the sale of their produce
in any one season. This was unimaginable a few years ago, but now that
Ama Sangathan is a plyer in the Kashipur market, things have turned in
favour of the people.
Grain Banks
Realising the needs of the tribal poor and the necessity for food security,
Ama Sangathan has emphasised the importance of grain banks. This has resulted
in a grain bank in almost all the villages in Kashipur. Ama Sangathan
has been able to successfully spread the initiative of self-reliance through
grain banks. Grain banks are a significant step towards preventing exploitation
by local moneylenders. This has gradually emerged as a micro-credit movement
in Kashipur and is helping people to meet several critical contingencies
independently, through their own grain savings. Besides this, at the village
and panchayat level, women have also started creating savings groups which
function similarly to the grain banks.
In both cases, loans are repaid with interest.
Compost Pits
Earlier, tribal communities would dispose of their household waste inside
and around their living space, keeping their livestock in the same area.
This resulted in the spread of infections and disease within communities.
Ama Sangathan initiated an awareness drive about sanitation and enumerated
the advantages of creating compost pits.
By constructing these compost pits, the villagers were able to maintain
better hygiene and sanitation in their village. The compost pits double
as a source of bio-fertiliser for the fields at no cost to the tribals.
Health
Tribal communities have their own cultural beliefs, which prevent them
from seeking medical help, even though it may be available locally.
Ama Sangathan reaches out to women and men in an attempt to create basic
health awareness. Efforts have included awareness campaigns on the use
of oral rehydration to check distress and deaths due to diarrhoea, ensuring
cleanliness around the village hand pumps, spreading awareness about
the various sources of nutrition in the diet of the tribal community.
They have also taken the responsibility of informing the medical department
in times of emergency, when there is news of spreading sickness and
disease during the monsoon, and have always made certain that those
suffering from illness are ensured timely medical help.
It is efforts like these that help check infant mortality rates (which
are high during the monsoon months) and the spread of epidemics.
Nurseries
In an effort to create interest among people with regards to plantation
and forest protection as well as creation, Ama Sangathan members supply
saplings of sabai grass, nilgiri, neem, chakunda, subabul, piasal, krushnachuda
and other to villagers free of cost, by raising nurseries. In addition
to this, fruit trees like mango, guava, jackfruit, orange and lemon
trees were also provided, with the added advantage of promising a monetary
value for the sale of the produce.
Through this scheme, more than 382 families of 6 villages are benefited
from sapling nurseries.
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