The condition of the indigenous community is a serious problem in India. The government doesn’t pay proper attention to their needs and rights. Most state and national policies related to indigenous communities are discriminatory, flawed, or ill-conceived. To combat this problem, Ananya Paul Dodmani started working for their upliftment. Her story aims to explore the root causes of marginalization, exploitation, and discrimination of indigenous people in India. Let’s listen to Ananya’s journey in her words.
Ananya Paul Dodmani – Her Story
I’m a non-indigenous woman who has absorbed a large part of the indigenous culture being born & brought up in a small tribal town in Northeastern India. A woman whose heart needs to live a challenging life in its quest for spiritual knowledge, to seek & find the purpose of life.
When I started working with the indigenous communities some 20 years back, I had absolutely no idea what I would do to make a sustainable impact in the community. There was so much to do and a lot needed to be done & the road was difficult.
The marginalized community has no money to buy food every day. They don’t have access to clean drinking water, better roads, & a safe place to sleep? All of it is not given. The freedom to walk around in peace is just another luxury many of us can’t afford.
While still in High School, I realized education is the only tool that can make them more empowered & I started teaching younger indigenous kids & women in my neighborhood. I taught some basic mathematics & language.
Around that time, my Baba was kidnapped & tortured for days in the Northeastern region, the trauma which probably will take years to overcome for us as a family. One life lesson I learned very early in life is not to ever be a victim of a situation & the incident only strengthened me & determined. I started working aggressively to bring some kind of change to the region.
I collaborated with different student bodies in college & started conducting exchange programs, workshops on sustainable menstrual solutions & many other life skills-related workshops absolutely for free. While I was taking these baby steps to make the community stronger, I realized I need to have more sustainable & impactful projects which will affect their life for good.
Your actions, however small, hold power! They define your reality; they define the life you’re living. I remember working in the indigenous villages where there were no learning centers, community halls or toilet blocks, no electricity, nothing at all.
I wanted to scream for help, not only for them, but for myself as well. So I started taking small steps, one straw at a time. I started going from one tribal habitat to another, gathering kids either under a tree or an open space whatever I could manage. I started teaching them single-handedly.
The villagers noticed this, and the local indigenous youth offered help. They volunteered for my cause & in no time; we became a huge team. Everything good that has happened to us in these years came from the actions we took collectively. From the words that I shared with the world through this mainstream people knew us, people started understanding that there’s a parallel world out there & we deserve better things too.
I started building learning centers, community centers & toilet blocks in the villages, most of the time pulling my funds, which I received as fees from consultation as a psychologist. I pledged 99% of my fees to be dedicated to indigenous welfare.
I’m continuously learning, aiming for higher goals & sharing my thoughts in my never quiet mind. Whatever you want in life, you breathe it to life by saying it aloud. I knew I need to be vocal about the issues plaguing the region.
I’m an imperfect human being with perfect intentions. With that strong intention, I registered my non-profit NGO in 2019 called Tribal Connect before working with many other organizations in different verticals. With 12 projects running on the ground, as of now I knew I can pull in the 13th too. Project Annapoorna, Project Lalli, Project Gyan, Project Happy Food Box, Project Warmth, Project Wings, Project Rahat, Rural Livelihood Sustainable Mission, The Monsoon Friendship Project, Project Chirayu are to name a few of our projects on the ground.
However imperfect we’re in the scheme of things, one perfect intention changes the game, isn’t it? And it did…
We reached over 80000 women across India with the Sustainable Menstrual Program & taught them to prepare biodegradable pads free of cost so that it would bring some kind of income for these distressed tribal women.
From the beginning of the pandemic to now, through my nonprofit I’m feeding thousands through our community kitchens spread across 5 Indian states, we distributed ration kits to Kaziranga, Karbi Anglong, and many places across Northeastern India. It benefited over 10k beneficiaries from our Menstrual Hygiene & Pandemic Sanitation kit.
With a belief that there’s no substitute for education, I single-handedly built 146 fully functional Learning Centers spread across different border villages in Northeastern India, West Bengal & Karnataka.
I feel incredibly lucky & privileged to use my voice to preserve & protect the ancient indigenous culture. I feel uplifted & happy when I do things that empower the community. This is my life, in all its ups & downs. They took me to where exactly I’m.
I live my life in the service of these beautiful people. I let go of many personal needs to pull in things in the villages. I find it was hard & often it still is. I’m a flawed human, after all, but everything is worth fighting. It is an honor & I know this is my destiny.
A Karamveer Chakra awardee, 2019, I would like to continue creating ripples in the remote rural community & help them get the life they deserve. I won’t stop chasing a better life for each one of us in these remote villages, however difficult it may get!
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