Finding the balance between entrepreneurship and Adivasi values in the Nilgiris

A small women’s collective of Adivasi youth is working on knitting a quilt on which a story of the community and its reliance on the forest is being told in the town of Ayyankolly, Pandalur, around 80 km from Udhagamandalam town. The community of youth, mostly from the Paniya, Kattunayakan and Kurumba Adivasi communities, are part of Urumala, a micro-enterprise that “builds capacity and skills of Adivasi women through sewing, embroidering, needle work, product design and business skills”.

In the town of Ayyankolly, Pandalur, around 80 km from Udhagamandalam town, a small women’s collective of Adivasi youth is working on knitting a quilt on which a story of the community and its reliance on the forest is being told.

The community of youth, mostly from the Paniya, Kattunayakan and Kurumba Adivasi communities, are part of Urumala, a micro-enterprise that “builds capacity and skills of Adivasi women through sewing, embroidering, needle work, product design and business skills”.

Urumula is one of two micro-enterprise models functioning under the umbrella of the Adivasi Innovation Hub, launched by the Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development (ACCORD) to help generate livelihoods and develop entrepreneurship skills for Adivasi communities in the Gudalur and Pandalur regions of the Nilgiris.

“The goal of the Adivasi Innovation Hub is to incubate at least five Adivasi-run micro enterprises in the next five years, all driven by Adivasi values on collectivism and sustainability which can gradually be run by the Adivasi youth,” said Anil Misquith, an adviser with ACCORD.

The youth employed at Urumula, which is the name of a traditional cloth garment pouch around the waist worn by Paniya women, have been trained to produce reusable cloth sanitary pads, tote bags, laptop sleeves, travel bags, pillow covers, story quilts and wall mounts. The story quilts and wall mounts in particular have managed to capture the imaginations of both the community members as well as prospective buyers, with the stories of the communities and their reliance on the forest being told through an ornamental needlework technique, known as “appliqué.”

“For instance, one such story is about how the Kattunayakan and Paniya honey gatherers always leave behind one portion of the hive for the bears of the forest, while keeping one portion of honey for themselves and only the remaining portion is sold to the outside world,” said Vaishnavi Sridhar, assistant programme manager at ACCORD, who helps the community design products for the market.

One of the few men workers at Urumula is B. Arun, a 19-year-old Paniya youth, who sketches the stories on paper before they are sewn into quilts and wall mounts. Mr. Arun said he had always been extremely interested in painting and drawing as a child, and was thrilled to have got a chance to do so for a living.