Our state Orissa has a predominantly tribal population. Development and progress of tribals is high on the agenda of RAC as the target group is faced with poor standard of living, lack of knowledge of the world outside their community, poor awareness rates, illiteracy, malnutrition, unhygienic sanitation and practices that are not environment friendly. Progress of the nation must place tribal development high on the   agenda. RAC   involvement here is noteworthy. Since its inception RAC has carried out a number of studies and undertaken series of projects for upliftment of tribals. Shortly it has completed a project at Ramthenga, a tribal village in Jajpur district.

It was an integrated approach for the socio-economic development and empowerment of the rural tribal community. Tribal women have been trained in tailoring at their SHG. The SHG members having borrowed the loan have engaged their men folks for income generation activities and on power tiller. Education of tribal children has been targeted. School uniforms have been distributed to motivate the children to come to school. Good sanitation practices have been promoted, so has sports, cultural programmes and other recreational activities in Jajpur district.

United we stand is our motto. This is a focus activity in application of  technology  for the development of tribls  in Karanjia and nearby blocks in Mayurbhanj district. The target group has small patches of land. Coupled with ignorance, the produce from the land has been low. Here RAC stepped in. It has been involved in farmer group formation and provided training through  resources  persons. Seeds   and  fertilizers   have  been distributed to the community. Farming is dependant upon adequate water supply. RAC has helped to construct water sheds and check dams. Wells were also dug community- wise as per need.  Unity has led to empowerment and sharing of experience has been a blessing. An individual could not achieve more,but the community could. It can be taught to become self sufficient and stable.

Man must learn to co-exist with all other forces on earth. The varied flora and fauna and natural bodies contribute to the biosphere. Reckless exploitation will only lead to collapse of human race. RAC is aware of this and is engaged in environment protection.

It has been involved in the UNDP project   in   Keonjhar   district. Pollution has been checked to a large extent through recycling  char( Waste of Sponge Iron Plants) into useful smokeless fuel known as briquette. People from nearby areas have learnt to protect their surroundings from pollution in the mines-dominated area. As more and more people are taking to briquette they have stopped felling trees to use as firewood. Forests are being saved as a result.  Rain depends upon forests.

The flora and fauna have been conserved as forests are home to them. It of course contributes in checking global warming. The DST project in Karanjia ,Mayurbhanj district has laid emphasis on construction of check dams for water conservation. This has in turn led to soil conservation. Many fruit bearing trees have been planted in hill areas which would have otherwise have passed off as wasteland. Preservation of eco-system is given importance even as all development work is carried on because the very survival of human race depends upon it. 

Education is empowering, liberating and enriching.  Civilization can advance only on the basis of education. For this a clear education policy must be adopted. A society becomes eligible to respond to developmental activities only on the basis of education. Our society consists of a large number of tribals who face backwardness because of low level of education. Poor literacy  rates, high  dropout  rates  are   the   problem  areas  in primary education level. We have studied the educational status of our project area in Karanjia, Jashipur in Mayurbhanj district and Ramthenga village in Jajpur district. The findings from the study pointed out that high percentage of children of school-going age are deprived of proper education due to poverty and lack of awareness. They are also engaged in various household activities and areas like agriculture, daily labour, firewood collection, as domestic servants. Some are also forced to migrate to other regions to earn money.

RAC always gives priority to community health as our state is lagging behind in this sector. Health of beneficiaries is of primary importance since rural tribal people are having poor health indicators. Lack of sufficient quantity of potable water, poor health practices, unhygienic living conditions contribute to poor health particularly in rural areas and tribal sectors. This affects their need based earning capacity and lowers their socio-economic status. It was both a privilege and challenge for  us  to uplift community health. Here awareness is the key-word as we give importance to raise awareness levels regarding health and sanitation. Sensitization programmes were organized and messages were directed through folk media, video programme and street play.

For effective implementation of any programme all available resources must be utilized to full potential. It is here that human resource mobilization comes into play. This force can be strengthened only through capacity building. Training is a socialization process where skills are imparted to augment human resources for the benefit. The resourceful in-puts in the  programme is  passed  to  the  participants  and  then   to    the community through the former. RAC has imparted training in various trades and vocations for the betterment of the vulnerable groups of society and for skill upgradation of in-house human resources.

The detailed list of the training programme is provided below ;

Mere implementation of a programme is not the end. Impact assessment plays a vital role to ascertain the degree of benefit of a programme for the target mass.  Feedback must be taken. Research, evaluation and assessment studies are the measuring rods for each implemented programmes. Progress and development can be analysed by the help of various tools. For development programmes, action  research  is  valuable. Whether change in policy is needed or not can be gauged. It is essential that such studies and surveys must be undertaken with accuracy and scientific research methods. RAC is well-versed with such research work.

Economy is dominated by various stakes. A tribal economy is vulnerable with regard to beneficiaries. Land alienation, degradation of natural resources, rampant exploitation, natural forces and lack of awareness are some of the major factors affecting the tribal economy. RAC has been involved in various projects with the aim to create avenues for livelihood for upliftment of the target group. RAC  has   trained  and  mobilized people. Targeted population has been assisted with necessary equipments, raw materials and resources in order to provide back-up for income-generation. In this regard different skill up gradation programmes have been carried out on different trades as per the local need and its feasibility as stated earlier.

RAC has laid special emphasis on strengthening the fairer sex as its gender sensitive approach for holistic development and empowerment. The focus has been on bringing out the potential present in women especially those who belong to backward communities. RAC has stressed on income-generating schemes, education, training, formation of SHGs and sensitization  programmes among women communities. In all the cases the targeted women have evinced keen interest and whole-hearted participation.