Summary of Events

Reclaiming Tribal Power is an account of my experience of working with Accord - an NGO in The Nilgiris district of Kerala. As an ex-banking professional, I was to contribute in fulfilling a long standing dream of the tribal community - that of having a bank of their own.

The discussion began with need for a bank and its scope expanded to all economic activities and the impacts on the tribal community. The context for the discussion was therefore reset. A financial institution or a bank cannot be treated as a standalone entity in this context. 

Stan, the co-founder of Accord worked with the community for over 30 years. His reading was that the community valued its culture and ethos. There was evidence that they had an intense will to preserve them and protect itself from being exploited by the mainstream economy.

It was unanimously agreed that the adivasi culture and ethos were relevant and even superior. To preserve them required the community to minimise its dependence on the mainstream monetary economy and rely within to fulfill its needs. This path of self-reliance is very tough, but had the answer they needed.

However, thanks to the successful interventions by Accord, the community was largely conversant and even dependant on the mainstream way of life. Also, government constantly doled out freebies and institutional donors ran projects to improve their life.

Walking on the path of self-reliance meant walking backwards on many aspects. Nonetheless, a plan was prepared, and the initial few steps were discussed. But after a series of meetings and discussions, I realised that though the fire was seen burning, the heat wasn't enough.

This first-time close encounter with an NGO and a very genuine one at that yielded two learnings for me. First, what often seems like a deep desire to change can't be taken seriously unless backed by action. Though the community leaders intellectually bought the idea of self-reliance, the lure of what the mainstream economy had offered - phones, motorcycles, fast-food, liquor, antibiotics et all was an invincible force.

Second learning was that a big bottleneck in implementing the required changes was the need of the NGO to help. The donor was now dependent on the needy to justify his existence.

The consequence was that both actors continued on the default path knowing well that it was leading to the dilution and eventual extinction  of the community's culture and ethos.