ACCORD – Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development

ACCORD (Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development) was born in November 1985 out of the realisation that the adivasis of the Gudalur Valley were being cheated and exploited and might soon disappear off the face of the earth. Our vision is to help the adivasi community of the Gudalur Valley in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu to take control of their own lives. In March 1986 out of a small office in Thorapally, Gudalur, we began the battle for adivasi rights. We started with the central belief that adivasis had to retrieve the ancestral lands taken away from them by force and deceit. ACCORD believed firmly that adivasis had a genius of their own and that if people could regain their dignity, pride and self esteem, they could once more take charge of their own lives. […]

ACCORD functions primarily as a Resource Centre providing Training and expertise and mobilising the required resources for the adivasi activists and sangams. Our aim is for all the adivasi institutions to be owned, governed and managed by the adivasis through their own representatives. The day-to-day administration of these institutions is already in the hands of trained adivasis. The leadership governing these institutions are adivasi village leaders and youth. […]

Address : http://www.adivasi.net/accord.php
Date Visited: Wed Jul 13 2011 17:11:00 GMT+0200 (CEST)

‘Kaathadi’ is a YouTube channel collectively built by students and teachers from the tribal communities in the Nilgiris

The full story with more pictures | New Indian Express >>

See also

ACCORD – Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development

Articles by Mari Marcel Thekaekara (writer and Co-Founder of ACCORD-Nilgiris)

Ashwini community health programme

Childhood | Childrens rights: UNICEF India | Safe search

Community facilities

eJournals, eBooks & reports | eLearning

eBook | Background guide for education

Education and literacy | Right to education

Forest Rights Act (FRA) | Legal rights over forest land

Gudalur | Communities: Paniya | Kattunayaka | Mullukurumba | Bettakurumba

Health and nutrition | Recommendations by the Expert Committee

Shola Trust | Nilgiri biosphere

Success stories

Tribal elders

Viswa Bharati Vidyodaya Trust

Western Ghats – tribal heritage & ecology

What is the Forest Rights Act about?
Who is a forest dweller under this law, and who gets rights?

“Who are Scheduled Tribes?”: Clarifications by the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes – Government of India

“The smart boy or clever girl who is deprived of the opportunity of schooling, or who goes to a school with dismal facilities (not to mention the high incidence of absentee teachers), not only loses the opportunities he or she could have had, but also adds to the massive waste of talent that is a characteristic of the life of our country.” – Nobel Awardee Amartya Sen in The Argumentative Indian (Penguin Books, 2005), p. 344 | Find this and other books published in India >>

Related: Tribal Children’s Right to Education | Childhood | Ekalavya (Eklavya, Eklabya), EMR & Factory schools | Childrens rights: UNICEF India >>