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A group of women in Chennai, India have pooled their small loans from Oxfam and bought fishing boats. They hire the fishermen to run the boats for them.
Photo: Martin Wurt/OxfamAUS

India

Oxfam Australia's collaboration with communities on the east coast of India has a long history. We have worked with marginalised groups including women, traditional fisher folk, tribal and Dalit communities. The inequity these groups experienced before the tsunami was amplified during the government tsunami relief and rehabilitation process. Our continuing advocacy and livelihoods work with these groups aims to strengthen their voices to alleviate their poverty and marginalisation.

Livelihoods

The tsunami destroyed the assets, natural resources and infrastructure upon which thousands of people’s livelihoods depended. Through networks of self-help groups, we are rebuilding people’s livelihoods so they have reliable incomes.

We are providing self-help groups with training and loans and linking them with financial institutions and sources of market advice. These loans are used to set up small enterprises such as tailoring or rope making, or to buy essential livelihood items such as fishing equipment. The involvement of women and groups who traditionally have had limited access to credit, has been crucial for community recovery.

Self-help groups have also been trained in book-keeping, income-generating activities and HIV and AIDS awareness. Communities’ increased awareness of their rights has helped them to identify and take action against discrimination and rights abuses.

Advocacy

Indigenous tribal groups, Dalit caste groups and marginalised farmers and fisher folk have been vulnerable to exclusion and discrimination in the recovery process. But their involvement in self-help groups has helped them to identify common issues and rights violations.

Our partners have worked with the government and other agencies to:

We supported our partners in a successful advocacy campaign that resulted in 2,871 tribal families and 2,980 Dalit families receiving their government relief entitlements (rations and temporary shelter) which they had previously been denied.