Paper Short Abstract:

The paper dives into my own reflections and discussions with colleagues at my workplace, BRLF wherein I try to focus on the social-cultural impact of the development institution and my role so far as member of the knowledge management and research vertical.

Paper Abstract:

BRLF or Bharat Rural Livelihood Foundation is a unique institution as it builds up civil society engagement and community enhancement through development projects for the livelihood and social enhancement of marginal tribal households. One of the mandates of our organization is build up climate resilient and sustainable livelihoods in the central tribal belt of India. In my role as researcher for the organization I shall be discussing through my own ethnographic engagement about the impact of the development projects in the lives of benefiting tribal communities. In the paper I shall also discuss the challenges for the local governing structure and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) and how these were overcome often resorting to culturally relevant means through which the beneficiaries are brought into the planning and discussion process of the project. Finally I shall tie these themes together with a discussion around how development and development processes which are foreign concepts are imported into the local vocabulary and symbolic ambit of the tribal communities who become or have become beneficiaries of such projects. The paper therefore aims to locate BRLF as a space which has the potential to reframe the social and cultural space of tribal India and therefore provide an alternative understanding of tribal india, one that isn't marred by the debates of indigenity vs colonialism as so often happens when it comes to the tribal question.