Aadiwasi Janjagruti:Young Boys Raise Social Awareness By Short Films

In this crisis of Corona pandemic, Aadiwasi Janjagruti are seeing information, messages and notifications everywhere. In almost every regional language, but what we are missing is any messages designed in local language (or tribal language) for the tribal populations living in the remotest villages of India.

Aadiwasi Janjagruti was started in Dhadgaon block of Nandurbar District of Maharashtra in 2017. Dhadgaon a tribal block with 97% of tribal population is considered as one of the 100 most underdeveloped blocks in India. There is no proper transportation and communication network in Dhadgaon and most of the villages doesn’t have even the mobile connectivity. One has to walk few kms and take a boat to reach certain villages of Dhadgaon.

But even in such remoteness a group of 8-10 tribal youth with basic education are making short films, funny videos and sketches on their local issues in their local language with the help of a mobile phone. It all started in 2016, when Nitesh Bhardwaj a boy from Bihar went to Dhadgaon on a fellowship. He went there and realised that although many government and non-government agencies are working there but the amount of money and resources spent on different schemes are not showing the intended result.  He realised lack of proper communication network and poor people’s participation on their own development process is one of the reasons behind it. To work on it he decided to use the minimum available resources in Dhadgaon. He organised a workshop of mobile film making and trained 10-12 youth for film making entirely on their phone. After 7 days of training the students came out with their first film on child labour which raised their confidence level. After this they made a short film on Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan and screened it in different village meetings using mobile projectors. This idea got appreciation on national level and won many prizes. Nandurbar District administration supported their cause and showed their film on mobile van to raise awareness.

Once this idea got success Nitesh converted this project as a social enterprise the main aim behind this project was to create social awareness and livelihood by using different communication tools. The tribal youth make short films, videos, sketches and news on local issues in local language using local artists and screen it in different villages meetings using mobile projectors.

Today after 3 years of this project, Aadiwasi janjagruti has a team of more than 50 volunteers from different villages of Nandurbar. They have screened their films and videos in more than 100 villages meeting and have reached more than 5 lakh people through different mediums. They are also generating money through local advertisements and crowd funding. This project is also raising confidence in the tribal youth. Rakesh Pawara who is one of the key members of the project has been awarded by district administration Nandurbar for his social contribution through this work and has been invited by many organisations to talk about his experience. The other team member Arjun Pawara has been recognised by Institute of Ruaral Management Anand (IRMA) Gujrat as a tribal entrepreneur for this project and was awarded by Maharashtra state government for vreatig awareness on forest conservations. Naresh More who is also the youngest team member of Aadiwasi Janjagruti has been selected as a Change Maker for Gram Swaraj Abhiyaan by Ashoka Foundation and Connecting dreams Foundation.

After this corona virus outbreak when Maharashtra is severely affected by the crisis and fake news is getting spreading everywhere, Aadiwasi Janjagruti is regularly making videos to raise awareness and fact check on corona virus in Pawari, Bhilori and Marathi languages to reach the tribal population of Nandurbar and adjoining tribal districts.

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