Stan and Mari Thekaekara Founded ACCORD in 1986 to Work with the Adivasi Communities Of

Taking Control of Adivasi Local Economy

Introduction:

Stan and Mari Thekaekara founded ACCORD in 1986 to work with the adivasi communities of the Nilgiri Hills with a mission to enable the adivasi community living in the Gudalur valley to regain their lost self-reliance and to participate in the mainstream society as equal partners with dignity and pride and not as a disadvantaged community. ACCORD’s philosophy is rooted in our faith in the ability of the tribal people to take control of their own lives and with a clear understanding of its catalytic role in the process of change among the tribal community for a temporary, time-bound period.

As a response to the rampant land alienation of the adivasis in the Gudalur Valley ACCORD helped the adivasis organise themselves in order to assert their human rights - especially the land rights. Some adivasi youth came forward to go from village to village, urging the adivasis to be united, to protect their land and to stand up to the people encroaching into their livelihood resources, however powerful they might be. These motivated adivasi youth, called Animators held a series of meetings in the villages. This resulted in the formation of many village level Sangams - a name for the unity of the adivasis. The village sangams started responding to issues of injustice and exploitation and helped the adivasis regain their land. The village sangams eventually federated to form ‘Adivasi Munnetra Sangam’ (AMS) in 1988. AMS has about 2500 families as its members now.

Responding to the needs ACCORD started development programmes with complete participation from the community. The community health programme in the villages – training adivasi women on preventive health care, immunising and monitoring the pregnant women and children, and improving health awareness in the community – was the first one among them. This was followed by interventions in the education field as well.

Simultaneously, we had to tackle the question of economic needs and productivity of the land taken over by the adivasis. When the land was not productive and did not generate any income, it was difficult for the adivasis to keep it under their possession. After lot of discussions in the villages, it was decided to plant the land with Tea. The choice of tea was a strategic one - it was a permanent crop and hence can be a proof of their possession and cultivation of land for many years. Moreover, the mainstream economy in Gudalur valley was tea-based and hence the adivasis too will become active participants in the predominant economic activity of the region. Tea would give income to the people all round the year. A massive tea plantation programme was undertaken. We raised our own tea nursery, and trained some adivasi youth on the management of the nursery. Simultaneously, sangam members were trained intensively in tea cultivation and provided all the necessary support and skills for maintaining the plots. Today, more than 1000 adivasi farmers are Tea growers (traditionally a rich man’s crop!) and more importantly, their land is productive and safe from encroachers. Many adivasi families are settled agriculturists now and their wage incomes are supplemented by the earnings from cultivating tea, coffee and pepper.

Due to the successful implementation of the tea planting programme, many adivasi families became successful tea growers. Subsequently, an informal Adivasi Tea Leaf Marketing Society (ATLM) was started with an objective to earn remunerative prices for the tea leaf cultivated by the adivasi farmers. At present, this society procures leaf from over 400 people and is supplying leaves collectively to a private Tea Factory. The average annual procurement turnover of this Society is about Rs.30 lakhs. Besides, the Society supplies inputs to the members and extends credit for all their production and consumption needs. There are a couple of other informal Societies to market the Honey collected by the adivasis and to provide financial assistance to build houses. The entire management of these Societies - from decision making to logistics, from financial accounting to coordination with the members - is done by trained tribal youth and sangam representatives with inputs from professionals.

Just Change:

By the mid nineties it was clear that an enormous change had taken place - the adivasis of Gudalur had moved from being part of the faceless masses that provided labour to the local plantation and agricultural economy, to being key players in the local tea industry. However, with this transition came a host of new problems. In effect the community had catapulted from a local economy into a global one over which they had no control.

It is against this background that Stan, Mari and the ACCORD team started looking for ways of securing the livelihoods of the adivasis in a fast emerging and powerful global market economy. An economy where the mass mobilisation of thousands of adivasis, which led to them successfully asserting their right to land, was no longer enough. They now had to develop a strategy of dealing with their vulnerability in the market economy. A search for more radical options led develop the concept of Just Change.

Briefly it is a concept that seeks to link poor communities across the globe by connecting their economies through a trading organisation based on cooperative principles. Traditionally, NGO’s working to improve the livelihoods of poor people, have focussed on strategies and interventions that offer the possibility of increasing their incomes. Little or no effort has been focussed on harnessing the income generated to have maximum impact. With the market and trade dominating the economy, it is imperative that we find new ways by which these communities can enjoy to the maximum extent possible the benefits of trade.

Just Change seeks to ensure that the total income generated by local people circulates within their own economy as much as possible. And what flows out should flow to other similar communities or economies. If these economies then function as a network based on cooperative principles then they contribute towards strengthening each other. Just Change believes that just as voluntary organisations have been able to mobilise people to gain political and social power to fight for their rights, it is possible to use the power of these organised groups to gain greater control over their economy – so that they are not just victims of the ”market economy”, but are active and powerful participants that determine and define their own economies.

The Potential:

In our attempt to take a greater control of the local economy it was felt that we needed a much deeper understanding of the income and expenditure patterns of the community. Therefore a study on the adivasi economy has been initiated to critically look at their income and expenditure patterns, savings and investment and debt, etc. at the household and community level. The Study showed that about 58 per cent of total expenditure of about Rs. 25000 by a family is on basic necessities including food and clothing. This means a whopping Rs. 45 million is spent just on food and clothing by about 3000 families. Most part of these products are produced by disadvantaged communities elsewhere in India. Similarly the tea produced by adivasi growers in Gudalur is consumed by poor communities all over by paying a high price. At the same time only a very meagre share of the price they pay reach adivasi tea growers.

Thus if all such communities come together and form a collective and take up trading among them, they can assure fair and just price to both the producer and consumer at the same time keep or share the surplus generate by the trade within them. This concept has created interest in many community groups and four of them have together decided to form a Producer Company to undertake trading in products. 5 most important products in the economies of these communities namely Rice, Tea, Coconut oil, Dal (Lentils) and Soap have been identified to the initial rounds of trading.

Based on very conservative estimates of trading between these groups in only these products, we project the potential of trading by year 2009 in the table given below –

Number of families trading / 12500
Number of products traded / Minimum 3
Total Sales value / Rs. 33 million
Aggregate benefit to the members / Rs. 5.3 million

This is after considering a staggered increase in membership and allowing for part consumption through other channels. More than monetary benefits, the community groups will have ownership on each product, can have a say in deciding the price of a produce consumed and produced, and will be an innovative way of extending solidarity to other communities.

The Project:

Even though four groups have agreed to be a part of this network, being the promoter group of Just Change concept, AMS and ACCORD took the initiative to set up and establish the system of community to community trading. This three year project is conceptualised to lay the foundation for community to community trading, on which the concept can be expanded to bring in more groups and more products.

This would require AMS and ACCORD to -

• Create awareness among the community and reach a broad based consensus to go forward with the idea
• Develop their own capacities to trade, and
• Develop linkages with other community groups and undertake trade with them.

The following programme is planned to achieve these ends –

1. Training programmes to create awareness and promote the concept

a. Village meetings –

Most important stakeholder in the whole project is the community members in the AMS villages. It is necessary to create awareness about the changing economic scenario and the need to go for an alternative among each and every member of AMS. It is imperative that we seek a broad based consensus within AMS before proceeding with the initiative.

As AMS has a very strong foundation with village level organisations it is proposed to conduct village meetings to be facilitated by village leaders and animators of ACCORD-AMS. There should be two sessions of such meetings in a village in a year. In the first year there will be village meetings in 50 villages which would grow to 100 in the next year and 150 by the third year.

b. Inter village camps –

It is our experience here that people learn most through peer group learning. Almost every developmental programme that ACCORD has initiated has spread and gained momentum when people from different villages meet and talk about the advantages of such a programme. To facilitate this happen, it is proposed to conduct inter-village camps.

For operational reasons, it is planned to hold such camps of 2 days each in 8 area centres of ACCORD-AMS (the operational area of ACCORD-AMS is divided into 8 clusters). At least 30 people will participate from different villages in each of these camps.

c. Taluk level camps –

For experiences from different areas to be shared, Taluk level camps of 2 days each are planned. 2 such camps will be held in a year with approximately 40 people participating in each.

d. Interaction visits to other communities –

The success of an alternative like Just Change depends greatly on the relationship between the community groups. Interaction visit to another community group is planned with this perspective. Around 30 people would participate in an interaction visit in a year.

1. Skills training programmes

a. Accounts training programme –

Operations like trading requires the community to invest in at least few people who can manage the affairs for them, especially keeping records and accounts and preparing regular reports, etc. Accounts training will be given to all those people who are managing the trading operations in the village level. These programmes will be conducted at area level and hence 8 such sessions will be required. At the same time these are not one-time activities and would require the staff of ACCORD and AMS to spend more time with them. Each year there will be more and more villages participating in trading and hence more number of people will have to be traded.

1. Computer training programme –

Presently the computer literacy among the adivasi community is very low. At the same time, we foresee that computerisation will have a very positive effect on economic activities that are proposed. A number of players from the community from village volunteers to coordinators require inputs on computers. We have kept a lumpsum budget for this programme as we have not yet ascertained the possible demand.

1. Trading infrastructure

a. Storage cum packaging unit - It is planned to set up a centralised storage cum packing unit in Gudalur in the first year. No further infrastructure is planned during the next 2 years. In the initial years till the trading reaches a level that are viable and make enough surplus, it is not practical for the community to bear the costs of setting up infrastructure for trading. Over a period of time the trading margins should be able to contribute towards building up such infrastructure and assets at the village level.

b. Computers – Presently 4 out of the 8 area centres are equipped with a computer each. As need for a computer will go up once the trading volumes go beyond a level, it is planned to equip other 4 area centres also with computers. 2 are planned in the first year and 1 each in the next 2 years.

1. Human resources

For the entire project to be successful there has to be a team of committed individuals with required skills working on it. ACCORD has always motivated committed youth from the community to take up the responsibility of bringing in change within the community. For this project also we propose similar approach and the following will be our human resources requirement.

a. Animators – These are social change agents working at the village levels. They will be members from the community who have been trained on social animation and are capable of doing critical analysis on social, political, economic and other aspects affecting the lives of the community. Animators will play the most crucial role of creating awareness among the community and motivating the community to go forward with this initiative. There will be 8 animators – 1 in each area – working on this project. They would facilitate village level meetings and camps.

b. Project Coordinator – The entire project will be coordinated by the Project coordinator. It is this person’s responsibility to see that project objectives are met at each stage. The coordinator also will provide critical support to the animators in organising meetings and camps. Project coordinator will work in tandem with the Just Change team in building relationships with other community groups.

c. Office support – An Accountant cum Administrator and an Office assistant will be required to support the programme implementation.

1. Overheads

Provisions are made for travel, office expenses and miscellaneous an unforeseen expenses under overheads.

The Budget of the Project (in Rs):

Item / 2005 / 2006 / 2007 / Total
Training Programmes / 175000 / 214400 / 271140 / 660540
Village meetings / 10000 / 20000 / 30000 / 60000
Inter-village camps / 32000 / 35200 / 38720 / 105920
Taluk level camps / 12000 / 13200 / 14520 / 39720
Interaction visits / 90000 / 99000 / 108900 / 297900
Accounts training / 16000 / 32000 / 64000 / 112000
Computer training / 15000 / 15000 / 15000 / 45000
Trading infrastructure / 560000 / 30000 / 30000 / 620000
Storage cum packing unit / 500000 / 500000
Computers / 60000 / 30000 / 30000 / 120000
Human resources / 651840 / 717024 / 788726 / 2157590
Animators / 384000 / 422400 / 464640 / 1271040
Project Coordinator / 120000 / 132000 / 145200 / 397200
Accountant/Administrator / 36000 / 39600 / 43560 / 119160
Office assistant / 42000 / 46200 / 50820 / 139020
Staff welfare (all above) – 12% / 69840 / 76824 / 84506 / 231170
Overheads / 154000 / 216500 / 279000 / 649500
Travel / 120000 / 180000 / 240000 / 540000
Office expenses / 30000 / 32000 / 34000 / 96000
Miscellaneous expenses / 4000 / 4500 / 5000 / 13500
GRAND TOTAL / 1540840 / 1177924 / 1368866 / 4087630
$ 34240 / $ 26176 / $ 30419 / $ 90835
10% transaction fee of Globalgiving.com / $ 9084
PROJECT TOTAL / $ 99919

NOMINATION

*What problem is the social entrepreneur addressing?

Poverty, exclusion and all the attendant needs (health, education, security, rights etc)

among five different ethnic adavasi (tribals) in Southern India.

*What makes this individual a social entrepreneur?

Stan and Mari represent two of the most entrepreneurial social activists I have ever met,

relentlessly working out, resourcing, adapting an holistic approach to transforming their

community's prospects. Over the past fifteen years they have bravely led protest, land

grabs - for over 25,000 people. They have developed rich village governance structures

in order to take forward momentum equitably. They have built a school, teaching in five

languages, a hospital and health outreach programme, both run by local people. They manage

a tea plantation, processing plant and have pioneered direct trade with poor communities

in the UK and Germany. They have negotiated group access to insurance and credit and are

currently focused on 'proofing' the project's economic impact on its community by enabling

the adavasi to map revenue flows. With the Skoll Centre, they are developing their thinking

around new distributions of capital among producers, intermediaries and consumers, and

developing the practical management tools to enable many others to benefit from the lessons

they have chiselled out through experience. They have responded again and again to each

new and very different challenge - mobilisation, capacity building, service provision,

production and trade, globalisation and dissemination - with unfailing commitment and imagination.

They are world class both in their approach, abilities and achievements.

*How does the individual's approach to social change comply with the following criteria:

*Innovation: Social entrepreneurs innovate to make the world a better place for a larger

number of people. In innovating, social entrepreneurs are at the forefront of change, most

often ahead of popular opinion, approaches, and support. Innovation could mean improving

systems, creating new solutions, and/or inventing new approaches or applications to existing