Asha Fellow – Siddamma

Siddamma (second row fourth from right) with Irula tribal community

Involvement with Asha for Education (AfE)

Siddamma is a grassroots activist who has worked extensively with the Irula Tribal Community for over 20 years. The Irulas are a tribe that are not recognized by the government. A majority of the Irulas are not educated and have been caught in the quagmire of bonded labor. Siddamma has created awareness about the problems that this community faces. She started the Sarpam Thozhil Sangam and with the help of this organization, several of the Irulas have been able to get basic amenities like community certificates, registration cards, housing and release many from bonded labor. With AfE’s help she has run 15 full time motivation centers that makes learning fun and helps the IRULA children integrate into the mainstream.

With AfE’s help, she started the Bharathi Trust Resource Center/Farm, which provides a platform to the community to provide eco friendly alternatives. She is helping bring back organic farming practices to help enrich biodiversity of the soil and is training several local farmers in these farming techniques. In the recent years, she has been helping with rehabilitating flood victims. With AfE’s help, she has provided food, temporary shelter, and has created 6 alternative villages and built permanent houses for some of them.

To know more about AfE’s involvment, click here.

Current Focus

Her focus is on providing leadership training to the Irula Leaders in Kanjeepuram district. She is continuing to visit the Thiruvallur district and help the Irula leaders there who need her support to resolve current issues. She is helping with getting land and ownership documents. She is also be working on fixing the fence and cow shed at the Farm.

Impact on society

After constant help and supervision from Siddamma, the Irulas are now confident to fight their own issues. They have gained confidence to deal with the government and are able to get all the developmental schemes available for their community. She has helped release thousands of Irulas from bonded labor; the number of people being attacked or abused by the “upper-caste” people has reduced significantly. Since a lot of them can avail community certificates now, a number of children are continuing higher education. One of her major impact is empowering women in the community to become economically independent and Village Leaders. She is also very proud that children who have completed their education are “successful”: they have the first lawyer, and two working at multi national companies

Future Goals

She has a lot of follow up work remaining from the 2016 floods/cyclone rehabilitation. Many of the flood victims have been allocated land by the government but have not been provided any housing yet. She is working on raising money to build huts/homes for these flood victims. She is also working on getting clean drinking water, electricity and a balvadi for children in Pudhukeechalam and Keezhapoondi. She will continue upkeep of the farm and educating local farmers about organic farming techniques. She will continue to be Advisor to the Unorganized Workers Federation Union which promotes worker’s rights and educates workers on existing government schemes.

Furthur Reading

    • Irula Community’s Guardian Angel Siddamma Media Report: