Community Digital Archive

National  Folklore   Support  Center , Chennai  has    supported  ASGP  to open a  Community Digital Archives  in  Sinapali  and    document  the ethnographic  data of  tribes of  Orissa.   Based on the support  from  NFSC  and  also   the  community agreement ,  ASGP  initiated  the  ethnographic  documentation   from two communities. One is the Gond and other is the   Bhunjia tribe.

The Bhunjia are the   endangered tribe of Orissa enumerated as Primitive Tribal Group (PTG) by the Government of India. Their number is 11276. Their number in Chhattisgarh is about   9000.  Their total literacy rate is 29.03   out of which male literacy is 44.52 and female literacy is 13.51.  They speak a language   which is belonging to   Indo Aryan Group, influenced by Dravidian language.

The Gond is the most powerful     tribe in   India in terms of their    population and the coverage of their geographical areas.   Total   7, 01,139 Gonds are found in Orissa. Their literacy rate is   46.96, out of which male literacy rate is 63.27 and female literacy rate is 30.81. The Gonds are found in most part of the district like Kalahandi, Bargarh, Sambalpur, Bolangir and Nuapada. Their number in Nuapada district is   about 3/4^th   of the total Gond population of   Orissa.

ASGP has    taken      four villages for the ethnographic study. Two villages from Gond community and two villages from the Bhunjia community in Sinapali Block of Nuapada District have been identified for  study  The   two Gond  villages  are  Litiguda and Arsha para(Pithapada )  and the   two Bhunjia populated villages  are  Khalna and   Sinapali.

The  Community Digital Archives  was initiated  on  March 2008  and   has completed  two cultural cycle  of  these  four villages   in  documenting the cultural practices  and  everyday life of the villagers. All aspects of  culture like  economic life, social  ceremonies,   family  rituals,  clan  rituals, entertainment  process,  and  art and craft  etc have been documented  in   performance.

Community as the partner   and owner of   the Archives have participated in the documentation and   started rethinking of their own cultural values. Village library have been created for them and the printed materials   related to their community are    shared in their village community center.

Till now  more than  5000  photographs ,  fifty hours of  video documentation, and  50 hours if  audio documentation has been  made  and  these  materials  are shared  among the   community members.

The equipments for documentation and its expenses   are borne by the NFSC.