Amita

Amita Tutti is a Community Correspondent and an Adivasi activist from the so-called Red Corridor. Amita's unwavering commitment to exposing the truth is inspired by her father who was poisoned to death by "upper” castes during the Adivasi land struggle. Her community has suffered for decades, caught in between the Maoist-Naxalite insurgency and police atrocities. Amita was born and raised in Sepagara of Jharkhand where she lived a hard life and struggled to make ends meet. She had an awakening of social consciousness when she realised that the struggle for food, clothes, and shelter is also a fight against corruption,…

A drum procession makes its way through the village of Sarjoma. Three women lead the way carrying baskets laden with grain and assorted offerings. The procession makes its way to a large stone which marks a memorial stone.

The Munda community of Jharkhand erects a gravestone to commemorate the death of an individual. The rituals they carry out today are the same ones their ancestors carried out 100s of years ago.

“The rituals and the gravestone keep the identity of the people of the community”, says Sinu Munda, an elder of the community.

In addition to the gravestone the deceased’s family also plant Sal trees, a tree that is an important livelihood source throughout a Munda’s life.

“The person may be gone physically but the stone we erect in their memory, makes them live on forever”, Says Community Correspondent Amita Tuti who is also a Munda.