Empowering marginalised tribal communities

My name is Amita Jadhav, current resident of Karjat, Raigad district of Maharashtra. I was born in a middle class Dalit family and have spent almost 18 years of my life in rural area of Ratnagiri district, costal belt of Konkan region of Maharashtra. In these years, I have closely observed as well as experienced the inhuman practices related to discrimination based on caste, gender, class etc. Being a teenager, I was not able to understand its historical context and deep roots but I could understand that it was not something that an ideal society should have for its citizens. I tried to fight back with the little knowledge but intense desire for equal treatment. I stood up against menstruation related offensive rules and changed customs in my family. I also stood up against one of the school students who would not prefer to have lunch with me as I was from lower caste, which resulted in an apology. Such incidents were a part of my childhood.

After my graduation, I moved to Mumbai to complete my Masters’ degree in Social Work. Thereafter, I was pressured from my family to make efforts for a Govt. job but I preferred to work in the rural area where I worked with Katkari- most primitive schedule tribe in India on their fishing rights. I was successful in getting the members of this community together which was difficult and revived their own cooperative for improving their livelihood. Then I moved to CORO, Mumbai based organization where I received the opportunity to further develop my understanding and attitude for working with people from most marginalized communities on their constitutional rights. 

Since 2015, we have been working closely with the Tribal community from Karjat tehsil of Raigad, Maharashtra through Manas Foundation, an organization founded by Dr. Nitin Jadhav and his college mates while pursuing their Masters degree in social work. When we started our work with these tribal community, we realised that discrimination was so common with them that resulted in inferior complex. For example, they hesitate to take empty seats in trains out of the fear that people will ask them to leave, even after purchasing tickets like everyone else. We tried to remove this fear by travelling with them and encouraging them to sit in the empty seats. Despite their majority, all the political, social and economical control is in the hands of the upper caste communities and these tribes are exploited in all aspects.

When we first approached these communities, there was too much dependency. They would ask us what we would give them. We said, we won’t give anything and we won’t take anything. Whatever issues they face, we together will find a solution and will work together but they themselves have to act on it. We are constantly trying to instill confidence and self-respect among them that they are humans too- trying to remove the fear of social stigma.

In the last four years, we have been successful in organizing around 400 tribal women and forming their own organization which will take ownership and will also ensure sustainability of our efforts. As an impact of our work, participation of tribal women in Gramsabhas is increased tremendously. It is shared by women from upper caste families that they also do not have  courage which these tribal women have gained in the last couple of years. Tribal women from Bhaktachi wadi have resolved their long pending water issue through Gramsabha and were successful in implementation of water scheme to get a 2000 meter pipeline and water storage tank of 26 thousand litres. Through our work, more than 300 tribal families have received basic identity documents like caste certificates and ration cards, and have accessed the benefits of the government. schemes and have initiated claiming their rights.  We have also been working to improve the health and hygiene condition of tribal women and children through awareness and providing access to facilities. With tribal children and adolescents girls, we have been working on enhancing their confidence and improving the quality of education and allied activities. We have also been making efforts to help tribal women and farmers to get better opportunities for their livelihood.

Along with other organisations, Manas is deeply involved in the campaign on property rights for women in the Konkan region. We have formed a network through which we are addressing the issues of  women property rights. Around 24 villages have been registered with 100% joint house titles where all houses are registered in the names of both wife and husbands. Also we identified from our work that marriage registration is most crucial for women in order to get their property and other rights, we have focused our intervention on making women aware and holding the system accountable for registration of marriages at large scale by addressing current gaps. We are also working to make the women aware of their rights in maternal properties and are motivating them to not leave it that is common in our society.

Now people from our tribal communities don’t expect us to give them anything but ask us the next steps to redress these issues, thus accessing benefits of the government schemes and claiming their rights.  Now they are towards becoming self-empowered to do all these official things on their own. We believe that the success of an NGO is in the fact that people don’t need support of any Ngo- that they become empowered enough to stand up for themselves. And to support them in this, we will always be there to guide them. It is my earnest desire that more people come forward to empower marginalized communities and stand against any form of discrimination.

(Story is also published on www.helpizen.com)