Who We Are?
The origin of PRDTI lies in 1975 when Ghazipur district made national headlines following burning of around 100 homes and huts of Dalits in two villages by Bhumihars (a land owning forward caste) to suppress movement of Dalit labours against low wage rates. This incident moved some young Dalit men and women to form an informal group. The group got inspiration from visits of the representatives of various voluntary organisations, social workers and social activists and initiated its journey for promoting the process of social change among Dalits.
Within a short time the house burning issue had cooled down. The group was now focusing on promoting self-mobilisation of Dalits in villages against low wages, police atrocities and corruption in government departments. In 1978 a spearhead team of a Delhi-based organisation Peoples Institute for Development and Training (PIDT) came to the area searching for some groups to work with them on local issues. The Dalit group was influenced by the organisation’s ideology and a strong relationship was established between the two. PIDT later played a critical role in transformation of the group into an organisation. Some of the group members visited Nagpur in Maharashtra to see some of the development initiatives taken up on similar issues.
In 1984, a careful decision was taken to register the group in the name of Poorvanchal Gramin Vikas Evam Prashikshan Sansthan under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Four years later in 1989 it was also registered under the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act, 1976.
PRDTI members started visiting villages at night to create awareness among the Dalit community for self-mobilisation with a slogan of sara samay pet ke liye, ek ghanta desh ke liye (whole day for earning livelihood and one hour for the nation. The work of PRDTI members attracted attention of a number of donor organisations like Action Aid, Oxfam, Indo-German Social Service Society, etc. Funds started trickling to the organisation from them. At the same time the organisation’s head received training in programme planning and management from state and national level resource organisations.
As the organisation got more and more involved with the community, support for its activities also expanded from the donors. As the years passed by old donors paved the way for new ones. As of now PRDTI has emerged as a prominent organisation in the area working among Dalits. To give further voice to Dalits it has become member of a number of state and national network organisations and has promoted a network organisation by the name of Dynamic Action Group (DAG).