Tribal Development Programmes of the Maharashtra Arogya Mandal

The Western Ghat Region is an mountain area located on the Westcoast of the state of Maharashtra / India.

The Mahadeo Koli and few of the Thakar people - Adivasis of this area - are living in small settlements and villages. Primary they made their living by agriculture, second by collecting fruits or producing honey. These people can be counted as one of the poorest one`s in India. The reason lies in the fact of years of discrimination, scarce water supply, constantly increasing deforestation which affects and hurts agriculture and the collecting of products from the surrounding environment. After completing agriculture work many of the people are going to urban areas for working purpose. Further the lack of education and other forms of income generating, and last but not least not exactly defined property rights made their live more than unsatisfactory.

The Maharashtra Arogya Mandal tries to raise the living standard of this tribal people by supporting a wide variety of different programmes. There are four main programme components: Health Programmes, Education Programmes, Income Generating and Drinking Water Supply. A agricultural service programme is run by to MAM to provide adequate guide for the farmers. Experts advise them about the proper way to plant rice and other crops and how to avoid the erosion of soil. Further the MAM runs education and motivations programmes and marketing strategies for selling the collected honey.

Some examples:

From October 1976 till March 1983 the MAM started a Bio Gas Project with the financial assistance of Bremen overseas Development Agency (BORDA). The aim was to enable alternate ways of getting energy to the people and avoid pollution also. Altogether 142 bio gas plants were constructed under the supervision of MAM.

The village Gorhe in the Thana district, was always confronted with an acute lack of drinking water. This problem has been reduced by drilling up borewells and modern methods of agricultural cultivating.

The tribal areas of Bhimashankar in Ambegaon Taluka of Poona district also experienced a drinking water problem within the three month period from March to May. Started in 1986 the MAM implemented a Water for Health, Sanitation Project to minimise these problems of the villagers. First beginning to drill 46 borewells more than half of them have been dried. When this project was completed in March 1993 seven water ponds have been constructed and fulfil their job until now.

In October 1993 a severe earth quake took place in Marathwada area, Osmanabad and Latur district. Thousand have been killed and the MAM - with the financial help of Arbeiterwohlfahrt Germany and Concern of Ireland - started immediately work to give aid to the affected people. Altogether 90 permanent earthquake proof houses have been constructed and were given to hard suffered families.

There is a strong and long term co-operation between Arbeiterwohlfahrt Germany and the Maharashtra Arogya Mandal. There is financial support for different projects and programmes.

Since 1975 the Maharashtra Arogya Mandal has been undertaken rural development programmes.

Back to Maharashtra Arogya Mandal Homepage