My rendezvous with Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram

A casual family gathering turned out to be a learning lesson for me. I had a little background of the work one of my uncles did for the Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram, however little did I know that it was just the tip of the iceberg. I was deeply humbled by listening to the work done by his team and the wider organization in various fields across India, to help the Indian tribal communities to make a better living.

India, known for its rich diversity and culture, has nearly 8% of its population as diverse tribes. There are more than 600 different tribal groups or communities across the country. These tribes have their diverse languages, cultures, rules of the land, and distinct lifestyles. Although India has progressed in the past several decades yet most of the tribes have never experienced basic amenities, forget the modern-day luxuries. This is, either due to the neglect from the government bodies to provide for such necessities or by choice of the respective clans to continue the traditional lifestyles of their ancestors. The lack of basic medication, housing, education, and a steady income stream to support these, results in most of them getting extinct.

The majority of the tribes live in remote parts of the forest with livelihood dependent on the forest around them. With the growing deforestation, they are forced to vacate their lands, leave their age-old practices and beliefs to adapt to the modern chaotic world. Thus, resulting in frustration, malpractices, and crimes. The once well-lived and contented tribesmen find it difficult to adjust in the modern world physically, financially, and more important morally, posing a challenge to their very existence.

For ages, they were absent from the government records and state governance, and hence they had formed a well-organized system to run their society. The local laws are suitable to their lifestyle and are based on trust and humanity, two qualities lost in the new world. With rich cultural beliefs, respect, and consideration for everyone within their ecosystem, they demonstrate the highest level of moral values not only towards the fellow tribesmen but also to the forest, soil, and mother nature at large. They have a strong sense of conserving the environment and take responsibility for their actions, unlike the more civilized sections of society.

Over a period, the government has taken multiple steps, policy amendments to give them equal access to state resources mainly Heath and Education, and have them implement at the lowest levels seeking help from non-government and other volunteering organizations. Unfortunately, growing corruption and malpractices ensured the help never reached the deserved statesmen. However, there are active efforts from some of the NGOs to bring these forgotten countrymen of ours to the mainstream, to have them access to facilities and amenities taken for granted by many in the cities.

Akhil Bharatiya Vanavasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA), Jashpur, in Chhattisgarh state, is one of the many NGOs working across states and union territories for the Tribal upliftment since the independence. They form a link between the government bodies and local communities to implement the gov. policies and schemes for the needy. ABVKA works in areas such as education, healthcare and small-scale industries set up to help the tribesmen to become self-sufficient. They also help the youths by setting up libraries and hostel facilities to provide a safe environment to continue education and find a suitable occupation to be independent.

Given the diversity of our country, running such a huge organization requires highly capable management with excellent governance policies. The local representatives strive hard to learn the local languages, given we have more than 600 tribal dialects spoken, adapt to their food patterns, and ways of living. All this to form close bonds with the tribes to gain their trust and friendship, to understand their day-to-day problems, and to facilitate help from the top. I find this best use of emotional intelligence to help solve issues and facilitate development.

The local representative reports the issues to the district/ unit of village level to see more inputs and avail funds and facilitate solutions to the problems. These units timely report their work and progress to the state-level bodies who not only govern these units but also provide help and resources. Ultimately these state units report into the country level, the top of the pyramid which not only governs the state units but ensures good practices are shared across units.

Surprisingly the solutions are never imposed on a unit or tribe. The tribesmen are encouraged to come up with solutions and options to their problems. ABVKA only acts as a mediator between the government and tribes. I found their approach more of bottom-up management as against top-down. With their large network of people and skills, it makes it easy to identify common problems across geographies and provide a solution promptly. At times, ABVKA also acts as a negotiator between the tribal communities and the government to help in implementing the right policies based on the current needs.

ABVKA is also involved in preserving and restoring the rich, unique tribal culture and their heritage, that is slowly phasing out in this modern world. Many tribes are on the verge of extinction, their valuable customs and traditions passed on from generations are losing ground. ABVKA helps in documenting and archiving these, considering this is a cultural treasure that needs conservation for future generations. They do conduct regular cultural gatherings to help in building social ties among various tribes, to bring in peace and harmony. ABVKA also arranges similar festivals and events in cities for the people to familiarise themselves and learn from the tribal cultures. They also conduct regular trade fairs and workshops to help in skills development among youths, to open avenues for occupation and business.

ABVKA also reaches out to professionals and individuals to volunteer for various initiatives. To contribute time and knowledge for a cause apart from monetary donations. There are numerous examples where experts from various fields have made scaling contributions through their knowledge and time that brought a sea change to the communities in need. Healthcare being the most neglected, yet crucial area, there are many hospitals, dispensaries, and medicine stores set up in various villages. ABVKA, do provide mobile medical vans in remote locations to help with first aid and initial medication. There are many ambulance services along with telephonic medical sessions with the doctors from the city to help with initial diagnostics.

ABVKA solely operates based on government funding and donations from volunteers to help tribal communities in every way possible. The volunteers selflessly dedicate their time and knowledge to help people in making a better life. They earn their remuneration in kindness and an eye-opening experience away from the world of luxury we take for granted. Anyone is free to volunteer for any of the causes, not only to contribute but to learn and grow in life.

As always, there is another side to the coin. Despite all the good efforts from the ABVKA volunteers, there is, at times resistance from the communities, to adapt to new policies or ways of the new world.

The tribes find it hard to adapt to the modern world with its complex processes and policies being corrupt and demoralizing. They find the people in cities to be disrespectful to fellow humans and mother nature, true to an extent. As their remote societies still obey the laws of the land, live in harmony with everyone around.

Despite the lack of formal education and state law and order in place, there are very few crimes or atrocities against women reported. The tribal panchayat makes the decisions unanimously if any such cases are reported. They love and guard their forest and pose excellent knowledge of organic farming, eco-friendly ways of sustenance resulting in a healthy and rich lifestyle. Surprisingly, most of the tribes in the remotest part of the country were unaffected by that little thing that happened last year, we call COVID-19.

In the end, there are things to ponder, whether we, the so-called modern citizens, need to learn and adapt to the traditional and authentic practices of living to sustain in this fast-changing, polluted, artificial world, or is it worth that the tribesmen abandon their homes, the very own forest and struggle to make a living in our world. That too, at the cost of giving up their knowledge, traditions and customs passed down from generations through the word of mouth, not to be found on Google ever.