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Visit to an Adivasi
Tribal Program India
In January Ruth, Katrina (our daughter) and I had a wonderful opportunity to meet with people working with tribal communities in south India and see some of the results of their work. We went there with Augustine Ullatil, an Oxfam staff worker whom many of you have met.
After Independence, the Government encouraged people to move to the more sparsely populated areas in the Nilgiri Hills, with the result that land previously lived on by tribal groups was taken over by new settlers. Tribals then became marginalised. Stan and Marie, a charismatic couple, moved to the area 20 years ago and began working with some of the tribal groups. One of the first actions of the tribal group was to take back some of the land and turn it into tea plantations as a way of escaping poverty. However, as stated in the Just Change website "in spite of the successful leap from labourers to producers, the Adivasis (tribals) found they were catapulted from a local wage economy into a global market economy." This left them extremely vulnerable to the market where the tea price was falling. Consequently they established links with deprived tea-drinking communities in the UK, effectively cutting out the middlemen and gaining more control over the price. The tea is processed in a local factory and then bought back for sale. Tea is now marketed through the "just change" label in both England and Germany. We can have a tea tasting at our next meeting.
The health situation of the Adivasis was very poor. There was an urgent need to prevent unnecessary deaths and provide health care. So, a community health programme was launched in the villages - training Adivasi women in preventive health care, immunising and monitoring the pregnant women and children, and improving health awareness in the community. This intensive programme immediately resulted in a dramatic improvement in the health status of the Adavasi community.
As part of the strategy to strengthen Adavasi identity and control over their lives, a hospital primarily serving and being staffed by Adavasis
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has been established. This hospital is now so successful that non-Adavasi people are wanting to be treated there. Outpatient care is now available for non-tribals 2 days a week.
A further focus was to raise awareness about the importance of education. A central model school caters for about 70 of the Adavasi children, inculcating Adavasi values and providing teaching opportunities for Adavasi youth.
It was inspiring to meet with a group of people so committed to positive change and the empowerment of people who had become so marginalised.
We also saw some evidence of support by Oxfam for Tsunami victims in the very South of India. This could be a topic for a future talk.
Stephen Lavender.
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