Bhubaneswar
A congregation of tribal farmers, indigenous agriculture practitioners, Field NGO partners, PRI members such as sarapanchs and ward members, and teachers from SSD schools shared their experiences, discussed issues pertaining to their areas or institutions, and brainstormed possible solutions here.
The Academy of Tribal Language and Culture (ATLC) and ST & SC Development, Minorities and Backward Caste Welfare Department organized the six-day workshop, titled Mahul Phul: Infinitely Indigenous at the SCST Research and Training Institute (SCSTRTI), that culminated on Thursday.
It is the first ever collective intelligence practice towards building system enablers for regenerative transformation, a State government official said.
Addressing the participants, Roopa Roshan Sahoo, Commissioner-cum-Secretary, SSD & MBCW Department, gave an assurance for the construction of 100 small cold storage units in tribal areas even as she observed that contingency funds can be placed for FNGOs under MMJJY so that they can spend the sum for certain activities.
She also stressed for prioritising the functionalization of PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group) educational complexes within a specific timeframe to ensure tribal children have access to quality education.
On the first two days, the knowledge sharing was on livelihood to gather collective intelligence from various stakeholders that included tribal farmers, janajati SHG members, FNGOs working with indigenous people, sarapanchs and wardmembers, academicians and experts from national and international forums.
Prof Suman Seth, from University of Leeds, who is part of OPHI (Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative) that designed the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) and Dr. Sumantra Pal, Economic Advisor to Government of India, listened to the views of participants and shared their thoughts through video conferencing.
The next three days were about tribal education and ensuring it is culture-anchored. Teachers from various SSD schools shared their experiences and issues in imparting education to these indigenous children.
“They spent the whole day analysing various cultural aspects of different tribes that can be included in school curriculum and the way forward to achieving culture-anchored tribal education. It was decided to set up a different vertical under ATLC and SCSTRTI for more research. Another decision was made to move a proposal for a Policy Resolution to have a Series of System Enablers for culture-anchored education,” the official stated.
The closing day witnessed department officials discussing about tribal culture and the ways of preserving and propagating culture and tradition of all 62 indigenous communities residing in the state including the 13 PVTGs.
“The six days of Mahul Phul: Infinitely Indigenous, a forum for gathering collective intelligence and finding way forward for regenerative transformation, was a successful endeavour. Over 300 participants from across the state congregated here to discuss issues and opportunities with regard to indigenous livelihood and education along with preservation and propagation of tribal culture. These inputs will enable better policy design in the coming days,” said Sahoo.
Indramani Tripathy, Director, SCSTRTI, highlighted that it was a unique platform where tribal people, indigenous leaders, NGOs working for them and grassroot government officials working for the STs shared their lived experiences to help the department take note of the realities of the ground.
For his part, Srikanta Tarai, Director, ST, pointed out that this event was unlike the top-down approach which is the usual practice. It is rather a bottom-up practice of listening to people for whom policies are made, he maintained.
P. Arthanari, Programme Director, OPELIP and other officials of the department attended the event to take note of the discussion and takeaways from these brainstorming sessions.
(The writers are associated with PHDMA)
