Every journey begins with a single step, ours began with a walk into villages that many maps had forgotten.

We began in 1981, seeking to understand the paradox of poverty and hunger in a land of abundance. The challenges were immense. There were few roads to reach the villages; hunger and epidemics were inherent part of the yearly cycle; a small community of contractors and landlords reigned supreme, and there was little or no respect for law. A series of discussions and dialogues with members of the community, leaders, elected representatives helped us understand the multi-layered systems of exploitation, and coercion that local communities suffered. It also opened the doors of perception to local community members to concepts of justice, equality and human rights. It also empowered local communities for self-governance.

In 1987, we registered formally as Agragamee. Gradually, our efforts helped to engender a synergy of food and voice, that built up the self-reliance and self-confidence of local communities. Tribal women were the most forthcoming. As they realised that the law gave them equal rights, they threw off their veil of silence and fought against discrimination at home, and for justice to their people. Their leadership has forged new bonds within a disillusioned and marginalised community, bringing about pro-poor and pro-tribal policies and helping to address exploitation and injustice at several levels. Support to village communities helped in the formation of people’s organisations, which helped to address the many problems with collective strength. Here again, women’s organisations came to the fore, increasing the visibility of people’s struggles, and enabling fair bargains for the tribal products through collective entrepreneurship.

Our efforts for natural resources development and sustainable agriculture helped the community make significant strides towards self-reliance and food security, enabling poor tribal families come out of the poverty-debt-poverty trap. Agragamee’s work in primary and adult education addressed crucial factors of exclusion and helped thousands of children, youth and adults and specially girls and women learn the three Rs, and aspire for a better quality of life by getting higher degrees, finding jobs, and accessing necessary information.

Agragamee has committed itself to siding with the tribal and other poor communities so that poverty and hunger are eliminated. It has consciously planned various measures to ensure inclusion, focusing on women and girls, in the school and adult education programmes, on the women headed and landless households in our natural resource development and livelihood programmes.

All this has been taken up with a strong engagement with the State. Whether it is for more pro-poor policies, or for the implementation of people centred laws, Agragamee has always sought to play a constructive role to ensure that the most marginalised and vulnerable groups get their due.