The most deprived among the rural poor are the adivasis. If the intention was to make a dent in rural poverty, there was no alternative to working among them.
That was the beginning of Development Research and Action Group (DRAG). That was its core objective. Over time, the strategy and programmes to fight poverty altered. At its inception though DRAG’s priority was to impact the lives of the tribals.
DRAG was established in 1988. Its conception went way back. To my student days in England and my involvement with the left movement. The initial phase included supporting the anti-Vietnam war protests, joining the demonstrations in the late sixties of the last century that wound their way from Trafalgar Square to the American Embassy in Grosvenor Square. These led to debates on what was afflicting our society and the way to go about bringing change in India.
It was when I started travelling around the country that I became witness to the remarkable contributions of NGOs to transforming the countryside. Rajiv Gandhi had set up the National Wasteland Development Board, appointed Kamla Choudhary as its head. Its focus was to find rural actors who could be involved in recovering wastelands, large tracts of which were lying unused . I was hired by it to write about NGOs, and the nature of the work they had done; and interact with panchayats and determine as to whether they were in a position to undertake wasteland reclamation.