In the town of Ayyankolly, Pandalur, around 80 km from Udhagamandalam town, a small women’s collective of Adivasi youth is working on knitting a quilt on which a story of the community and its reliance on the forest is being told.
The community of youth, mostly from the Paniya, Kattunayakan and Kurumba Adivasi communities, are part of Urumala, a micro-enterprise that “builds capacity and skills of Adivasi women through sewing, embroidering, needle work, product design and business skills”.
Urumula is one of two micro-enterprise models functioning under the umbrella of the Adivasi Innovation Hub, launched by the Action for Community Organisation, Rehabilitation and Development (ACCORD) to help generate livelihoods and develop entrepreneurship skills for Adivasi communities in the Gudalur and Pandalur regions of the Nilgiris.
