Form in the Tribals of Bastar – Contextualizing Our Understanding

Several assumptions about the ‘backwardness’ of rural and tribal communities have to be discarded if engagement with these communities is to be meaningful and one that honours many of their traditions and customs; in the process of development and modernization, no community must lose its richness of culture, lifestyle and values

W e were going to become post-graduates, with an MA in Social Work, in a few months and our campus recruitment and placement week was approaching. The Career Guidance and Placement Cell had circulated the schedule of the organizations that were coming for campus recruitment. It was a Sunday; we were lazily discussing our career prospects in the corridor of our hostel. We had different ideas about careers; there were some who were very clear about the organizations they wanted to join, a few who wanted to study further, some who wanted to work in a particular region (“I want to get placed wherever my boyfriend gets placed!”) and some others who wanted good money! There were others, like me, who were not sure what they wanted. I had done some field work in the area of disability, palliative care, waste management, women’s empowerment, health, adoption and community development. I was sure I didn’t want to take up research or academics. I did not enjoy working in institutional settings either. It seemed my options were to work with the community, that is, community based work. The next questions were, “Where? Urban slums, rural areas or tribal areas?”

Our placement brochure hardly had four or five community based organizations. I was confused as to how to go about choosing. Meanwhile, something my room-mate Raisa had said gave me an idea. During her rural practicum assignment, a development professional had told her, “If each of you could keep aside a minimum of three years of your career life for rural India, you will be making a fair contribution.” I looked for NGOs that worked in rural areas and found ‘Search’, ‘Gadchiroli’, ‘Samaj Pragati Sahayog’ and so on. PRADAN also happened to be one of the organizations I had shortlisted.