“Difficulties existed in order to be solved.” – Mother Emilie Dorman (Co-Foundress – SAL)
This initiative is mostly done in Chakan (Pune) – a district of Maharashtra. SAL works with two local tribespeople namely the Katkari Tribe of Maharashtra (designated as Particularly Vulnerable Tribe by the Government of India) and the Takur tribe (also from Maharashtra). These tribespeople are illiterate, ignorant and especially vulnerable to exploitation. They live in poor and unhygienic conditions. Many of them are malnourished.
The St. Ann’s pre-school is located in Jahanuma, in the old city of Hyderabad – Telangana. The dominant ethnic population in this vicinity are Muslims. Over here, SAL has established a tailoring training centre for mothers as tailoring is considered an important skill for Muslims. Both the tailoring centre and the pre-school are housed in the same building with the tailoring centre being on the first floor and the pre-school on the ground floor. The pre-school has lower and upper kindergarten classes.
Previously, the Tribespeople lifestyle was self-sufficient. With the land they owned, they had food security, and they did not depend on anyone else. But with the expanding world and commercialisation, land grabbing ensued and thus the Tribespeople have become poor, lost their culture and their traditional way of farming. On the land and forests that they do own, they are forced to grow commercial crops and rely on costly fertilizers and pesticides to sustain these cash crops, thereby incurring debt.
The Sisters have provided the Tribespeople with training sessions on the traditional way of farming i.e., organic farming. The Tribespeople are now growing millet which is used to make Naachini, and multi-crops in an effort to create food security for themselves.
SAL also provides them with information on their rights by imparting information such as only Tribesmen can purchase Tribal land, and only Tribespeople can get products from the forests on indigenous land. They also stress to them how they can protect their rights, ownership rights on land, and other acts of protection.
The Scheduled castes were considered during the pre-independence time and until recently as the ‘untouchables.’ Due to this term and the taboo that comes with it, they struggle to maintain a dignified life. Poverty, illiteracy, superstitions are the dampening factors that force them to remain under-developed. SAL works with the Schedule Class segments in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh for their social and economic upliftment as well as the enjoyment of privileges owed to them. SAL through People Led Initiatives (PLI) has successfully managed to get 225 Scheduled class people their land back from the Government in Shithode, located in the Beed District of Maharashtra.
