Paper short abstract:

In the 21st century India, globalization and its consequences on the marginal groups, needs a relook of anthropologists from the margins or the perspective from the below.

Paper long abstract:

In the 21st Century India, globalization and its consequences on the marginal groups, needs a relook of anthropologists from the margins or the perspective from the below.

In order to undertake this engagement an overview of the Non-government Organizations (NGOs) and their role in the development process in the third world countries like India is very crucial. It is viewed by the scholars and practitioners that they have a greater role to play in the lives and livelihoods of the tribal and marginal communities of India today. These communities are numerically highest among all the social categories of India in particular and south India in general. Marginal Communities have been, so far, studied by almost all the disciplines in social sciences and, partly in humanities as well. Anthropology, by tradition, has an edge over other disciplines by carrying a number of studies among marginal communities with strong emphasis on holistic and comparative methods. There are numerous organisations working among these communities to bring out these communities from the clutches of poverty, unemployment, discrimination & untouchability, and inequality and enhance their capacities to manage their resources, access, and utilisation and improve their livelihoods base in their locality. An attempt has been made in the paper to see the role of an NGO in the development of a Sugali settlement. It is also attempted to understand how the information and support from the agency (NGO) helped the community to become self-reliant. The drawbacks of the developmental interventions of the agency are also examined in this paper.