INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)

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Tribal communities are still facing multi variant issues even today. They possesses a distinct dialect and

cultural traits. One of the most significant feature of the Tribal economy is that they have been restricted to low

position on many occasions physically and socially and they lead a remote life instead of being engrossed in

the social life due to many reasons away from mainstream population. On minute terms these variations are

inbuilt and it is not visible. But when we count them together this may lead to a deprivation of their life from

social, economic and educational and occupational aspect. Their land deprivations, lack of assets, acute debt,

destruction, poverty, Tribal right violations of every conceivable kind and so on. In addition to poverty,

starvation and every sort of exploitation, malnutrition of pregnant women, infant mortality, especially death of

newborn babies swallows this once rich land. Perhaps the single-most important contributory factor to the

child malnutrition deaths, and the cause for the overwhelming poverty of the Tribals, which fails to be

addressed to date, is the alienation and loss of most of their fertile agriculturally suitable land, total destruction

of their indigenous mixed cropping system, change in diet and lifestyle, and loss of hope.

Attappady Comprehensive Tribal and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (ACT and PVTG) Development

Project got its sanction for work on 3

February 2014 the Empowered Committee of

the Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India approved the project. For duration of seven years

Objectives

The project endeavors comprehensive integrated development of Tribal families of Attappady block. It aims at

reducing vulnerabilities of the communities and improving their socio-economic and livelihood status. Another

objective of the project is to maximize the communities’ access to their rights and entitlements. Sustainable

livelihoods like agriculture and allied activities need to be developed where the community can be self-reliant

and self-sufficient in food. Women’s institutions would be built up for total financial inclusion leading towards

poverty alleviation and social development. Awareness generation would be enhanced on all issues for the

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)

ISSN No. 2321-2705 | DOI: 10.51244/IJRSI |Volume XII Issue X October 2025

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communities to be able to access all entitlements and schemes. The institutions would enable women to access

credit, engage in sustainable livelihoods, build up entrepreneurship, marketing and negotiation capacities and

capacity to assert their agency in all realms from the domestic front to the various forums like the area of work,

 Institution at the Ooru (hamlet) level and Panchayath level for Tribal women to enable them to access

all entitlements and schemes of each department and engage in the proactive process of preparation of

Tribal sub-plan.

 Institutions to ensure availability of nutritious food, access to health care, education, etc.

 Institutions should have the ability to prevent social issues like child marriage, domestic violence ,

trafficking and other forms of violence which affect the status of women

 Skill training to youth to save them from unemployment, despondency and alcoholism.

 Livelihoods in agriculture and micro-enterprises that would lead to economic development

 Funds disbursed to the community

Attappady will ultimately developed as the immersion site for the community resource persons and

through the community network.The institutional structure envisioned in the project comprises Neighbourhood

Groups (NHGs) at the lowest level, Ooru Samities at hamlet level, and Panchayat Samities at the Grama

building blocks of the community network. Ooru Samities, which are federations of NHGs at the hamlet level,

have General Bodies comprising all the NHG members of the respective hamlets. The General Body of the

Panchayath Level Samiti consists of office bearers of all the Ooru Samities in the Grama Panchayat.

First Step - Formation of Neighbourhood Groups

Sustainable socio-cultural and agricultural development cannot succeed without the full participation and

collective action of the community as a whole. In order to develop the community kitchen into a real space and

forum for community empowerment, social mobilization and information dissemination, newspapers were

internal lending to the tune of Rs. 38,05773 and repayment to the tune of Rs. 15,0867. All of them manage

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)

ISSN No. 2321-2705 | DOI: 10.51244/IJRSI |Volume XII Issue X October 2025

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their books of accounts brilliantly. Majority of the groups have savings in between Rs. 10,000 to 20,000

followed by savings below Rs. 5000. Majority have taken loan below 5000 followed by those in between

10000 to 20000 and by those in between 5000 to 10000. Majority of the groups have in between 15 to 20

Second Step – From NHGs to Oorusabhas and Panchayath Samithies

Following the formation of NHGs, they were consolidated at the ooru or hamlet level to form the

An Oorusamithi comprises of 5 to 10 NHGs. If a hamlet has a small population and only 2 to 3 NHGs, then

two adjacent hamlets come together to form the Oorusamithi. The Oorusamithi is formed through a workshop

in which all members should present. In the meetings Group participatory exercises and presentation about the

relevance of the institutions, the perceived goals of oorusamithi and panchayath samithi would be discussed.

Resource mapping and livelihoods like agriculture, cattle-rearing and non-timber forest produce would be

drawn and presented. At the end of the discussions, the members would select the Executive Committee from

the Presidents and Secretaries and a nominated member of each NHG.

At present 106 Oorusamithies have been formed out of which 40 are in Agali, 36 in Pudur and 30 in Sholayur.

They are being registered and have bank accounts. Start-up costs and Vulnerability Reduction Funds have been

disbursed. Panchayath Samithies were formed in all the three panchayaths, Agali, Pudur and Sholayur within a

Funds to the community

Corpus fund of Rs 10,000 has been given to the 507 groups. Start-up- Costs of Rs 63 lakhs has been given to

63 Oorusamithies and 63 lakhs Vulnerability Reduction Fund to 63 Oorusamithies. This is based on the micro-

plan and vulnerability index developed by the Oorusamithies. The Oorusamithies disburse the funds to the

NHGs which are most vulnerable. VRF in Attappady is considered as a revolving fund and repaid to the

Oorusamithi by the NHGs. Community Investment Fund of Rs. 75,60,000 has been given to the 3 Panchayath

samithies. The fund has been transferred to the NHGs and will be returned to the Panchayath samithi. An

amount of Rs 60,000 is being given to the NHGs and they are using it for the purpose of livelihood by

developing business plan looking into available resources, skills and marketing facilities.

Community Cadres – the Backbone of the Process

continuous process with constant reflection and review meetings where conceptual clarity about the project

was achieved apart from the thematic training on agriculture, natural resource, education, health, gender, etc.

There are around 120 Animators. Through the capacity building process, the Animators have been

strengthened to access their rights and entitlements and strengthen the institutions to raise their voices and

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC INNOVATION (IJRSI)

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assert their agency and access their rights. They support the capacity building programme in the field. All the

community cadres belong to the respective Tribal communities and speak the Tribal dialect.

Capacity Building

Capacity building programs have been facilitated for NHGs, Oorusamithis and Panchayat office-bearers and

members. Trainings have been held to explain the non-negotiable principles and various activities like

Community kitchen and health interventions. Women were trained in topics related to Oorusamithi and

farming without lethal pesticides and chemical fertilizers and other agro-chemicals.

Exposure visit was undertaken to Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh, Kovel Foundation and Jattu Trust in

Vishakapatnam to understand the institutions of women from Animators and Co-ordinators.The Tribal

communities, the agriculture and Non Timber Forest Produce (NTFP) operations they have undertaken. Visits

were made to Oornatikiri, Malapuram, Thrissur and Ernakulam districts. They learned about the functioning of

joint liability groups, saw the exhibition of Kudumbashree products.

It was a revelation to the women to understand the potentials of marketing. Kurumba women were shocked to

see that products like ragi could be sold at such high prices. The confidence in organizational structure to be

able to manage agriculture and marketing and undertake micro- enterprises was built up.

Farmers Field School

these field schools. The expertise and local knowledge of the whole community will be brought together in

these demonstration plots.

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2) Basu S. 1994. A Health Profile of Tribal India. ,Health Millions 2(2): 12–14.Thakur

DC, Saini AS. 1991. Socio-Economic impact of Tribal development Programmes in Himachal Pradesh. J

Rural Dev 10: 823–30

3) Blackie and Brookfield,H, (1987), “Land Degradation and Society”, Methuen Publishers.

4) Hanumanth Rao. D., and Mallikarjuna Rao, R. 1994, “Levels of malnutrition and socio-economic

conditions among mona gonds”, Jol of Human ecology, Vol. 5(3), (July),pp. 185-190.

5) Kaushik Bose, Sanjib Gangulu Hasina Mamtaz, Ashish Mukhopadyay (2005) “High prevalence of under

nutrition among adult kora mudi Tribals of bankuea district, West Bengal, India.

conditions among mona gonds”, Jol of Human ecology, Vol. 5(3), (July),pp. 185-190.