Paper short abstract:

In the clamour for enhancing livelihoods through imparting new 'skills', loss of skills to sustain livelihood options among the most marginalised shouldn't be overlooked.

Paper long abstract:

Historically, indigenous communities lived near forests, largely dependent on forest produce and some farming. Life and livelihood of such tribes, founded on an intricate relationship with the ecosystem used to clearly contrast with that of the mainstream society. The present-day tribal population in India, alienated to a large extent from their natural landscapes, is dependent substantially on agriculture, wage labour and migration. Farming practices and technologies prevalent in the dominant mode of agriculture are fast invading the tribal landscapes, deskilling indigenous communities of their time tested know-how and socio-cultural fabric. This is evidently posing several threats to themselves and even the larger society struggling with large scale ecological and socio-economic changes.

Weakening social-ecological institutions along with incursion of capital intensive modes of farming, seems to be furthering their vulnerability than empowering them or making them part of the core economy. This happens even as country wide formal initiatives in skilling rural India invest significant amount of public resources. It is in this background that a team of development researchers and practitioners, along with tribal villagers embarked on a co-enquiry to explore the kind of skills and skilling processes befitting the tribal context of central India. Adaptive Skilling through Action Research (ASAR), as it came to be known through its journey, is in its third year and sprouts of transformative thinking are emerging in the hamlets. The paper will unravel the role of collaborative, creative and adaptive thinking needed for rural India, especially for the most marginalized of them.