Till last recent few years, While Working with the Adivasis, Nomadic Tribes and De-notifies tribes we came across with the fact that, the people from these communities even though residing on the outskirts of the village ground (Gairan- reserved as Cattle field) or on the reserved Government or forest lands do not possess any residential proof documents of village as a resident. They possess no residential proof documents like Adhar card or ration card neither they have voters’ card because these community people move from one place to another, one village to another in search of livelihood for six months and have no permanent shelter for their families where ever they move on till rainy season starts. Man of them live in shanty house or a temporary hut. Women from these communities rarely goes to hospital for their child delivery because of unknown fear of hospital in their mind. Usually, they give birth to their child at their home and therefore the Birth registration process doesn’t happen automatically like other community people. Very rarely out of ten people one only possesses Adhar card without having any other document of identity poof.
When we started to interact with these community people, they always requested to make an arrangement of Adhar card or Ration card proof documents for them to avail government facilities. We then initiated meetings with different Govt. officers like Tehsildar, Deputy Tehsildar, block development officers for pursuing this issue with them on meeting the urgent needs of these community people. We started to meet these officers on weekly basis or after fifteen days interval to chase this issue but unfortunately, we didn’t get prompt response from these officers in time.
We were receiving quite frequent reminders and requests on Identity proof documentation registration demand such as Adhar card and Ration card or voters’ card from these community people whenever we used to visit them in their localities. When Orgnisation leader Sunita Bhosale had been chosen for “State Coordinating Committee” she raised this burning issue of these community demands on that platform asking the members that these people must get the right of having “Government Identity proof documents” after having local enquiry process. Local Political leaders are not really cooperative or sympathetic towards these community problems arises because of non-availability of such entitlement documents with them. Thus, after pursuing the situation with Government officials on the right platform of “State Coordinating Committee” meeting the chief collector of State Election Commissioner of Maharashtra Mr. Shrikant Deshpande had given instruction to take on this issue immediately to give justice to these community people.
Later on the camp was arranged with the help of concerning Government department. In this camp 127 community people registered their names to get voters card especially who were above 50 years they also registered after local enquiry with their photo and declaration form to get voter card. The locality of “Shirur” and “Nimone” also held this kind of activity where total 435 people processed this registration to possess their voter Identity proof. In the same camp 33 NT-DNT people from different village localities were not able to get ratio under Govt. scheme also linked their Adhar card to ration card for food support provided by Government schemes in the same camp.
In brief our organization’s primary objective is to address the everyday challenges faced by NT-DNT and Adivasi communities. These challenges include criminal stigma, gender discrimination, child marriages, a lack of education, health and hygiene, entitlements, citizenship, structural violence, abuse, and workplace violence. The organization aims to raise awareness among these women about their rights and provide them with the tools and knowledge to utilize public mechanisms to seek justice.
The Organisation has been doing number of interventions in the field for its beneficiaries to accelerate its reach out since last 2 years with its increased partnership with Few CSR and Foundations. Following are few examples of our interventions till 2023-24 –
Education:
Reduced dropout rates for 348 NT-DNT and Adivasi children through school re-enrolment, active teacher involvement, coaching, and daily attendance tracking. Around 1000 NT-DNT and Adivasi children received school materials like notebooks, pens, pencils, etc.
Justice and Protection:
Supported 2460 survivors of gender and caste-based violence, assisted 58 survivors of domestic violence to achieve justice and fair compensation Enabled 22 sexual violence survivors to access legal and judicial aid for perpetrator convictions. Provided legal support to 560 families for securing land rights.
Rights and Entitlement Delivery:
Enabled 1980 women and men to obtain caste certificates and 1148 to acquire voter cards for local elections, provided 360 members with government Aadhar identity, and 262 with ration cards for food security, secured land entitlements for 123 Adivasi Pardhi families, 10 women started small scall business in the villages.
Healthcare Services:
Conducted health check-up camps for children across 5 villages inhabited by NT-DNT and Adivasi communities, 500 women were given information about health and hygiene
