Who are the adivaasis of India? Essentially, they are people who occupied the Indian subcontinent before the Aryans came to India. These people have experienced considerable amount of discrimination since. Often considered lowly for their darker skin colours, these are people who have had to give up their land and property to various conquerors. Finally, it has been the Indian state with big corporations working to use their land for their own benefit. Adivaasi women are raped on a daily basis, the most recent of these has happened at Kushmandi in West Bengal. Governments regularly push these matters under the carpets. To add to these, there are Maoists in various adivaasi regions. I am not claiming that the rise of Maoism has nothing to do with the way the government has treated adivaasis. It is obviously a direct outcome of the way the Indian state has functioned. But the behaviour of Maoists and Naxalites themselves have been far less than commendable. Yes, in many places they have done good work, but in other places they have terrorized adivaasis into not voting, keeping silent and even taking advantage of adivaasi women. Violence between the state and Maoist or Naxalite elements will often be played out on adivaasi bodies.

So in such a situation what can an adivaasi person do? How do they build up resistance against an oppressive state and an equally oppressive set of political activists? Crowdfunding India might be an answer. In order to build up resistance, adivaasis need money. No resistance can be made without education, food and healthcare. All of these things must be provided at all costs to adivaasi regions. Through online crowdfunding adivaasi groups can set up schools, community dining spaces and hospitals. Obviously, none of this will happen in one go. This will take the grueling work of decades. But if the money keeps coming, this can be done effectively. Schools that teach Santhali and other indigenous languages and institutions that provide vocational training for adults are a starter. Reproductive healthcare for women and menstrual hygiene for girls is another basic.

No resistance can ever be built without constructive efforts and it is here that crowdfunding India comes to help. Crowdfunding platforms like Impact Guru are experienced in medical and NGO crowdfunding. If you are an activist looking to organize and agitate, you can start a fundraiser on Impact Guru. It takes less than five minutes to do so. When you are setting up the fundraiser, remember that you should explain your agenda very clearly so that contributors can follow you. You will need a team backing you to help you popularize your campaign on social media, send emails to various people and reply with personalized emails to various other contributors. A campaign manager from Impact Guru will set out the target amount with you. This kind of crowdfunding will need to happen on a regular basis. Overall, if you are an activist or a development worker, remember that crowdfunding India is a very low risk, low investment process. You have nothing to lose for it, only gain. Besides you don’t have to wait for government allocated funds for these projects. Try it. It is worth a try.