Understanding Kalahandi

Beginning the Kalahandi series with Gram Vikas!

The beginning of the year for me rather started with a lot of learning and interesting conversations. I got an opportunity to do what I love the most, understanding rural India with organisations that are working tirelessly on the ground giving meaning to social impact.

I am excited to start the Kalahandi series and share some of the most beautiful stories from the ground, in my effort to understand the real meaning of development, real meaning of what the communities actually want and what is the best way to deliver it, with them. The series begins with a crisp understanding of what is Kalahandi, their people, their culture and their challenges as we deep dive further!

“Kalahandi”, the name may be refers to the black cotton soil which brings out black pots from the potters’ wheel that was predominant in markets of the district and neighbourhood. The District occupies the South Western portion of Odisha, bordered to the North by the Balangir District and Nuapada District, to the South by the Nabarangpur District, Koraput District and Rayagada District, and to the East by the Rayagada, Kandhamal District and Boudh District¹.

The climate of the Kalahandi District is of extreme type. It is dry except during monsoon. The monsoon starts late in June and generally lasts up to September. Kalahandi District celebrates many festivals round the year like Chhatra Jatra in Bhawanipatna, Deepawali, Holi, Ramanabami. There are also some other local festivals like Khandabasa, Nuakhai, Amnuan, Kandulnuan, Seminuan, Dumernuan, Kalahandi Utsav, Ghanta Jatra that are celebrated in the District. You will enjoy the upcoming blogs on their unique festivals and “melas”!

Apart from hunger, the tribe faces several other development challenges such as illiteracy; lack of access to basic services like schools, health, nutrition, employment, land ownership; low agricultural production, lack of institutional credit and access to non-timber forest produce (NTFP). Every tribal community has a distinct way of life, majorly depending on nature and natural resources. Inter-generational poverty is a reality among tribal communities².

A sunny afternoon in one of the villages in Kalahandi

The social structure is well-organized and unified in a tribal settlement and the co-operation is remarkable. The families are mostly nuclear and patriarchal in character. Women, however, play a relatively big role in the collection, processing and sale of non-timber forest produce. In addition to housekeeping and child care, female members across age groups perform most of the domestic work except fuel wood collection.

A few primary schools have come up in villages. Efforts by the government and welfare organizations have also resulted in the gradual transformation of the community’s social life and infrastructure.

On an average, the annual income from all sources for a tribal household ranges between Rs 15,000-30,000. Most of the households have an average debt of Rs 5,000-8,000 to friends, relatives and money lenders. Fluid cash is completely missing in most households. The most migrations take place between July-August and November-December when the community waits to harvest. These are food-scarce months. A majority of the migrants move to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to work in brick kilns and to Kerala to work in stone-crushing units, hotels, rubber and tea plantations.

Anaemia rates are precariously high among adolescent girls and women. Prevalence of nutritional anaemia in children under five years is 74.3 per cent and in pregnant women is 49.7 per cent. Most households practice open defecation. Drinking water especially during the summer months is a problem in most tribal settlements due to drying up of tube wells³.

Homes where people and their beloved goats live together!

Over the next few blogs, we will learn about the work done by Gram Vikas , which is an Indian non-governmental organisation based in Odisha, and was founded in 1979. Gram Vikas works towards enabling rural communities to lead a dignified life. This is done by building capabilities of village communities, strengthening community institutions and mobilising resources. Gram Vikas works on six focus areas which are water, livelihoods, sanitation & hygiene, habitat & technologies, village institutions and education.

The series will closely look at lives of the adivasi community, challenges faced by them in their everyday living and the core initiatives taken by the wonderful team of Gram Vikas to bring change in their lives.

Stay tuned and I will see you soon :)

Love,

Ankita

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalahandi_district

2. http://www.isec.ac.in/JSED/JSED_V3_I2_245-265.pdf

3. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/breaking-the-kalahandi-syndrome/article29813862.ece