As the world's largest democracy rises, who will fall behind?

Photo Essay by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

These photos are from Touchwood's census work and feature people of the Irula community from two government-designated villages. Prints of all the photos were given to the families.

Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte also contribute at Mother Jones.

Adivasi is an umbrella term for the indigenous people of southern India. Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian states of Kerala, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Mizoram and other northeastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Adivasi is an umbrella term for the indigenous people of southern India. Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian states of Kerala, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Mizoram and other northeastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Adivasi communities have relied for centuries on India's forests for food, fuel and cultural identity. Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernisation. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had endured swidden agriculture for many centuries.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

In addition to agricultural development, the growth of conservation zones and national parks has taken away open access to the forest for the adivasi.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Some particularly marginalised communities were forcefully relocated out of the forest into government-built houses.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Irulas are a scheduled tribe of India. Irulas are present in various parts of India, but are mainly located in the Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu. Their population in this region is estimated to be between 1,000 and 2,000.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Within days of starting work with the Touchwood Ecological and Social Foundation, a small NGO partnering with Irula communities outside of Mudumalai National Park, Tamil Nadu, we found that the government census documents we’d received for nearby Irula villages were woefully inaccurate. The government, having created the villages, had undercounted their populations by three or four times.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

About a year before our visit, the government built solar-powered electric fences around the villages, ostensibly to keep wild boars and elephants out.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Soon after installation of the government built solar-powered electric fences, elephants trampled the fences.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Without the supplies or tools to repair the damaged fences, the communities wait in vain for the government to help.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Today, the flimsy metal lines serve as a reminder to the community that there is a distinct border between their lives and the forest.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

According to anthropological literature, the main occupations of the Irula are snake and rat catching. They also work as labourers (coolies) in the fields of the landlords during the sowing and harvesting seasons or in the rice mills. Fishing is also a major activity.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Although considered uncivilised and primitive, the adivasi were usually not held to be intrinsically impure by surrounding (usually, caucasoid - Dravidian or Aryan) caste Hindu populations, unlike Dalits, who were. Thus, the adivasi origins of Maharishi (Sanksrit: Great Sage) Valmiki, who composed the Ramayana Hindu religious epic, were acknowledged, as were the origins of adivasi tribes such as the Grasia and Bhilala, which descended from mixed Rajput and Bhil marriages.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

Unlike the subjugation of the Dalits, the adivasi often enjoyed autonomy and, depending on region, evolved mixed hunter-gatherer and farming economies, controlling their lands as a joint patrimony of the tribe.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

The romantic history of the adivasi is a grating contrast to their reality. Today, the adivasi are no longer allowed to go into the forest.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

They cannot gather wood, graze their cattle, or collect honey from the hives that hang from the towering cliffs.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte

But the rules don’t stop them – they just step over the broken fence.

Text and photos by Jesse Finfrock and Rachel Lichte