Siddamma is a grassroots activist and an educator working with the marginalized Irula Tribals for the last 12 years.

Knowing how it felt to belong to a marginalized section of the society was an early lesson for Siddamma after she was brutally attacked as a child by a bear. Though she managed to survive after 20 days in coma she had many facial and shoulder scars. As a young girl she had to suffer much discrimination and ridicule, but her mother did not let her quit school, encouraging her to work even harder.

In '93 as a young sociologist and educator for slum children she was exposed to the plight of the slum women who were suffering inequality, oppression and extortion and she stood up for their rights.

This eventually let her to create Bharathi Trust (named in honor of Bharathiyaar, a poet and freedom fighter, who believed in equality and empowerment of all). Her work then took her among the Irula tribals. The trust is now a people's movement covering over
50,000 people in four districts of Tamil Nadu.

While there have been several provisions of employment available by the government for tribals, like the Irulas (ST), these were beyond the reach of the Irula children most of who did not go to school. Bharathi Trust also helps villagers organize themselves to represent themselves better in their struggle for basic rights. The initial effort was merely to receive minimum wages. Bharathi Trust provided the leadership training and helped in creation of this transparent institution that truly represents the people.

In getting organized, many communities have been able to get their basic rights and villages have been transformed. Siddamma's most recent effort is in the creation of a
village resource center. This center would not only help communities experiment with different modes of livelihood in primary production, but also provide a building ground
to teach kids who have dropped out of the conventional system of education and make them self-reliant.

More information is available here

Vignesh Nandakumar is with Asha for Education

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