Agragamee is a not for profit organisation working for the poorest and most deprived sections in of Odisha. Our approach combines socio-economic development with awareness and education to build a synergy of food and voice, that has ensured self-reliance and self-sufficiency of local communities. Our efforts have helped women leaders like Sumani Jhodia and Sukri Majhi provide outstanding leadership to counter alcoholism and exploitation, students like Munni Majhi and Mamata Jhodia shine in their studies and aspire for a better future and farmers like Bhuban Jani adopt sustainable cultivation practices and increase their incomes five times.
We invite you, come join us in this effort, to help the poor lead a life of dignity and self-reliance. There are few things more satisfying than that!

Our work has been facilitated by the generous support of national and international philanthropies, government agencies, and concerned individuals who have stood by us in our worst moments of crisis. This support has helped us address the most challenging development issues and bring about tangible change in the lives of the poorest people. Our interventions are in the following areas :

Education for All : Our work in education through village night schools in 7 districts has helped more than 15000 children from the least literate tribal districts develop fluent reading and writing skills and pursue further education to access government jobs and professional careers. Subsequently, Special efforts to address the female literacy gap through Agragamee Schools have created models for addressing problems of first generation school children, leading to tangible and significant increase in the learning outcomes. These models have been piloted with much success in government primary school, helping children’s reading abilities to jump from 5% to 56% at the end of class II, and from25% to 83% at the end of class IV. Most importantly the effort has helped release the creative potential and created a love for learning in every child, leading to increased attendance, and making them enthusiastic readers. The Annual Report of Agragamee School is written by the students.

Women’s Development : Our efforts in women’s development has helped more than 5000 women come together to form the most successful tribal women’s federation called Ama Sangathan. This federation has been able to fight exploitation by money lenders and contractors, and also change government policy under the leadership of people like Sumani Jhodi, Shukri Majhi, Salpei Majhi, Gunjuli Nayak and Ghasen Jhodia. Encouraged by their success, these women have also started a collective enterprise, which sells tribal products, and ensures a better bargaining power to tribal farmers and peasants.

Eco-village Development : Working with small farmers, in ecologically fragile areas, Agragamee has encouraged tribal communities to develop their villages as eco-villages. The core concept is sustainable management and governance of the Jal-Jangal-Zameen (water forest and land) resources. The concept is based on a landscape approach and draws inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi’s Gram Swaraj. It seeks to help tribal communities have long term food and livelihood security through commons development and rejuvenation, and support for establishment of sustainable family farms, that can help to address the problems of shifting cultivation.

Advocacy for Rights and Entitlements : Tribal communities are some of the most excluded sections, denied access to basic welfare services, and even the fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution. Agragamee works with youth, women, and the entire community in general to help them understand their basic rights and make collective effort for implementation of the basic provisions under the Constitution. Its efforts in the area of Decentralised and participatory governance has helped local Panchayats to ban liquor and ensure fair trade in Non-timber forest produce. It has also helped tribal communities for land rights through implementation of the Forest Rights Act, and other enabling provisions.

Our work in areas of education, livelihoods, natural resource development and people’s leadership is widely recognised, and reported locally as well as internationally. All this has given us the courage to carry on with our commitments for the deprived and underprivileged in the face of huge odds. (Our Journey) We invite you, DONATE NOW and join us in this effort, and reach out to those denied even two square meals a day. There is nothing more satisfying than that, you can take our word for it!