ACCORD (Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development) was born in November 1985 out of the realisation that the adivasis of the Gudalur Valley were being cheated and exploited and might soon disappear off the face of the earth. Our vision is to help the adivasi community of the Gudalur Valley in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu to take control of their own lives. In March 1986 out of a small office in Thorapally, Gudalur, we began the battle for adivasi rights. We started with the central belief that adivasis had to retrieve the ancestral lands taken away from them by force and deceit. ACCORD believed firmly that adivasis had a genius of their own and that if people could regain their dignity, pride and self esteem, they could once more take charge of their own lives. […]
ACCORD functions primarily as a Resource Centre providing Training and expertise and mobilising the required resources for the adivasi activists and sangams. Our aim is for all the adivasi institutions to be owned, governed and managed by the adivasis through their own representatives. The day-to-day administration of these institutions is already in the hands of trained adivasis. The leadership governing these institutions are adivasi village leaders and youth. […]
The smart boy or clever girl who is deprived of the opportunity of schooling, or who goes to a school with dismal facilities (not to mention the high incidence of absentee teachers), not only loses the opportunities he or she could have had, but also adds to the massive waste of talent that is a characteristic of the life of our country.
