RURAL AGENCY FOR SOCIAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT

Rural Agency for Social and Technological Advancement, or RASTA, is a not-for-profit development organisation operating in Wayanad district since 1987. ‘Rasta’ in the local language means ‘road.’ Our goal is to pave a road of social and economic development through the villages of Wayanad.

Wayanad was identified as one of ninety most backward districts of India by Government of India . Nearly 35 percent of the region is forest area and 17.5 percent of its population belong to tribal communities. Poverty, lack of education and unemployment are significant problems that plague the people of this region.

The communities we work with come from diverse backgrounds, from tribal groups to poor landless women and farmers.Rasta initially focused on poverty alleviation programmes. As the work started having an impact, we expanded our portfolio to cover projects on natural resource management, community based organisations such as self-help groups, tribal development and sustainable development.Our work focuses primarily on women as often, they are the immediate victims of limited employment opportunities and resultant poverty and health related issues.

At Rasta our vision is to co-construct an egalitarian society based on equality through social, economic and organisational development of the small and marginal farmers, women, tribal communities and other weaker sections. We believe in the development of human resources, sustainable resource management, and dissemination of information and promotion of socially and ecologically appropriate technologies for the development of rural communities.