Alumnus Update: Srihari Chity — Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation Blog

Srihari Chity is a 2007 scholar who pursued a Masters in Public Administration at Cornell University.

This week he shares with us his vision, efforts and challenges in creating discernible changes to the lives of rural women around the country.

Quest for a Just and Equitable World…

The world is full of inequalities. While there is race between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos to be the richest person in the world (with net worth of USD 190 billion each), there are millions of people across the world who don’t have the wherewithal to arrange two square meals a day. In India, the story is no different. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown forced millions of migrants and other vulnerable communities to starve, while during the same time, Mukesh Ambani added USD 37.3 billion to his net worth, making him the richest person in Asia. The top hundred richest persons in India have a collective net worth of USD 500 billion, which is almost 20% of the total Indian GDP, while a vast majority of India’s population is still living in abject poverty. This is just one facet of inequality. There are so many other ways in which people remain unequal on the basis of race, caste, creed, religion, gender, place of birth etc.

In India, in the intersection of caste, creed, religion, and economic status, women are the most discriminated and marginalised. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-4) suggests that 30% women in India in the age group of 15-49 have experienced physical violence and 31% married women have experienced physical, sexual and emotional violence by their spouses. In many places, women don’t have the voice, she doesn’t participate in decision making, she doesn’t own any assets, she doesn’t have any say in spending the money she/family earn and she doesn’t have leisure time for herself.

All these phenomena have been disturbing me for long. Though such discriminations have been part and parcel of life all around me since my childhood, I didn’t have the lenses to recognize it until I joined PRADAN (Professional Assistance for Development Action) – a voluntary agency working for the cause of rural poor, after my undergraduate engineering studies. The more I understood, the more I was shaken from within. Gradually, I made firm resolutions to do whatever little I can do to minimise these inequalities. To understand more about inequalities, its implications, policy frameworks which address inequalities and various ways to address such discriminations, I went to Cornell University for my graduate studies with the help of Inlaks Foundations.

After returning from the US in 2009, I chose to work in Southern Odisha, one of the most poverty stricken regions in the country, known for high tribal population, 90% people living Below Poverty Line (BPL) with long history of left wing extremism related conflicts. I had a soft corner for this area, as I was born here and had witnessed the extreme vulnerabilities that people of this area live with. My wife, who had gone to the US with the Ford Foundation fellowship, agreed to co-travel with me in this endeavour. We asked PRADAN to help us create a base for us in Koraput district of South Odisha to serve the rural tribal communities. PRADAN readily agreed with the proposition and extended all kind of support to fulfil our quest, as there was commonality in the mission of PRADAN and us.

The first two years were quite challenging. There was a great reverse cultural shock as we had shifted from a comfortable life in the US to a remote rural place in India, 1200 miles away from the national capital New Delhi and 350 miles away from the state capital Bhubaneswar, devoid of all kind of basic amenities. Also, the community was not very welcoming because of many unpleasant experiences with the outsiders in past. It was quite frustrating in the beginning because of the challenges both at my personal and professional front. However, gradually we settled and were able to mobilise tribal women in some villages to form groups to discuss issues affecting their lives and start acting on them collectively. Though women were hesitant in the beginning to share about their personal lives and difficulties with other group member, gradually with our facilitation they started opening up. One of the major issues identified was the livelihoods of their families. Without sufficient food to eat, they were finding it difficult to address other issues of life such as gender, health, education, sanitation, housing etc. So, we began to intervene for support across their livelihoods. Most of these families were dependent on agriculture, so we tried to introduce improved methods of farming to ensure their food security and also facilitated them to adopt cash crops to earn extra income to address other issues of life.

Tribal Women with ginger crop in Koraput

The skills and knowledge, we had acquired through our studies in US, helped us highlight the issues faced by the tribal communities, especially women. Further, we extended our service to help the local/block/district administration to find out ways so that the entitlements and schemes of the government could reach to these poor remote villages and help the village women address their pertinent issues. We could build rapport with the administration in a short span of time and along with the administration we were able to serve the communities in much better ways. We conceived projects such as Integrated Natural Resource Management (INRM) under Mahatma Gandhi National Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and implemented the same with the support of government administration, which not only ensured 100 days of wages for the participating families but also helped to create durable assets such as Water Harvesting Structures, Farm Ponds and Plantations for enhancing community’s livelihoods. While in the US, we had built connection with many development professionals from across the world. We constantly remained in touch with them to create appreciation around these issues and raise resources to do the work for the tribal poor.

Very soon we were able to bring discernible changes in the lives of the rural women in Koraput. Their food security was assured as we revived the dying millet cultivation in the area and the income was enhanced through vegetable and horticulture crops, which the tribal women invested to improve other aspects of life. The women started participating and influencing the local governance for availing better services. Also, the first set of women we worked with helped us to reach to more number of women. In 10 years’ time, we reached out to 25,000 women in Koraput district. These women have been collectivised into self-help groups (SHGs), village organizations (VOs), cluster level federations (CLFs) and block level federations (BLFs) named Narishakti Mahila Mahasangh. Also, they have formed business entities such as Koraput Narishakti Women Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to cater the interest of small and marginal women farmers.

Further, we started discussing with the other Civil Society Organizations (CSO) working in the district on ways to serve the community of Koraput better. This discussion culminated in formation of a learning group of CSOs, in which best practices were discussed and the CSOs imbibed various aspects of learnings and experiences, and capitalized upon them to serve their respective areas in a more sustainable manner. Also as a group we could influence the district and local administration to better serve the rural community of Koraput district.

Tribal women with millet crop in Koraput

Now, I am coordinating the Resource Mobilisation efforts of PRADAN to serve millions of poor in several poverty clusters in India such as Sathal Pargana, Chota Nagpur and Kolhan region in Jharkhand; Bastar region in Chattishgarh; Maha Kausal, Baghel Khand and Satpuda region of Madhya Pradesh; Jangal Mahal region of West Bengal; and tribal dominated areas of South Rajasthan and Bihar. These are the regions, where 70% of India’s tribal and two third of India’s BPL population lives. It would not have been easy to traverse these roads less travelled, without the exposure I received while studying in US with the support of Inlaks Foundation and the active support of PRADAN.