Stories from the grassroots | Thoughts on development | Lessons on leadership
Earlier this year, two communities – Parivara and Talawara were added to the list of Scheduled Tribes. These communities numbering close to 11 lakh has further resulted in marginalizing the shrinking numbers of forest dwelling indigenous communites.… Continue reading
Watching television is now an ordeal. One hears a lot more noise than anything else. Whether it is news or current event shows, the media seems to be obsess over the death of an actor of the demolition of the office of the other and the consequent political drama that plays out.… Continue reading
It was the year 1989 and was around the time that I was slowly beginning to understand the indigenous way of life. These were also some of the best years of my life and I cherish the memories of my association with some of the elderly tribal chieftains of Heggadadevanakote. … Continue reading
Many years ago, I ran chasing young Manjula (whom I used to fondly call Chikkaputti), a 7-year-old Jenukuruba tribal girl. She was determined to escape being caught and was trying her desperate best to avoid coming to our school. Not someone who would give up easily, I went after her as she took flight into the forest by jumping over the shallow trench separating the school form the neighbouring Bandipur National Park.… Continue reading
Bhagyamma and 15 other women were sitting around and talking about how Kalamma was suffering from the last two years. They were discussing whether her drunken husband needed to be chided collectively or boycotted socially or to file a complaint of domestic violence in the nearby police station.… Continue reading
Thimmamma limped slowly to the Fair Price Shop in her village. This was the second day that she was going there. She just could not manage to stand the whole day in the queue and negotiate her way through the crowd and buy her rations the previous day.… Continue reading
A hundred years ago, on the 19th of March 1911, thousands of women gathered in Germany. Their main concern then was the plight of working women. What started off as a movement in Eastern Europe and Russia slowly gathered momentum and the United Nations started celebrating this event as Women’s Day on the 8th of March every year on a worldwide basis from 1975 onwards. … Continue reading
I have always believed that communities having Food Security is one of the manifestations of their development. Food Security is not something that happens as a stand-alone phenomenon. It reflects the priorities of people and their spending capacities, availability and access to food grains, agriculture progress of the land, social policies of the State and more importantly, societal commitment to ensure that no person goes to bed hungry.… Continue reading
I was in Muguthanamoole on the 5th of this month along with Poshini and Devaraj, my colleagues at SVYM. Poshini and her team are passionate about empowering the community and getting them to understand the concept and practice of ‘Entitlements’. For the last few years, we have been trying to get people to use the Right To Information Act to secure what is rightfully theirs.… Continue reading
Death always brings along with it a feeling of sadness. It also leaves you thinking about after-life and what lies in store for a person after death. I felt alone and empty when my father died a few months ago. I felt sad and lost when I heard about the death of Ningamani a few weeks ago.… Continue reading
Akkamma sounded agitated on the phone. She wanted to know why she had to go through the process of being identified and declared as ‘Akkamma’ by someone who did not know who she was. It took a while for Poshini* to calm her down and get to understand the problem.… Continue reading
This incident occurred many years ago. A very sensitive and humane officer, Mr.Subbaraya Kamath was worried about the consequences of the displacement that was being planned by the Forest Department in Sunkadakatte forests in the Nagarahole National Park. He along with Vijay Lal Meena, the then officer-in-charge of the park were to meet with the tribals living in the forests and discuss the potential consequences of shifting or not shifting them out of the forests.… Continue reading
Bomma, a Jenukuruba, lived in Vodeyarahallimala tribal colony with his wife and 3 little children. His existence was relatively monotonous and his only worry each day was finding some employment locally, to keep the hearth in his little hut burning. His wife Chinamma was additionally burdened with his drinking habits and the entire family had nothing more than a hand to mouth existence.… Continue reading