Samata is an India-based non-governmental organization that focuses on advocacy and development issues among tribal communities in Andhra Pradesh. Samata helps tribal groups address problems of land alienation, displacement, and political dis-empowerment. Its mission is to uphold the traditional, constitutional, and human rights of the tribal or adivasi people. Samata focuses primarily on projects in the tribal villages of East Godavari and Vizag districts in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. This region forms a part of the Eastern Ghats range of mountains. History of Samata Samata achieved NGO status in 1990 and has become one of the primary advocates for tribal and adivasi rights in India. It continually expanded as an organization, taking on new campaigns and issues as the demand for its services grew in the 1990s and into the new millennium. Beginning In 1987 Samata was formed to mobilize groups of tribal and rural youth against exploitation by non-tribal people and address the government's negligence towards villages of Mallapuram, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. Samata applied tribal land protection laws to prevent further abuse of tribal land rights, and they eventually won the implementation of government programs in 49 villages of the area that led to the construction of primary schools, housing, roads, drinking water projects, and electricity grids. Samata was formally registered as a non-government organization in August 1990 under the Indian Societies Registration Act. The day after their official formation, Growth New projects and campaigns followed the early actions in Mallapuram. Samata organized communities in the hills of Poolabanda, Andhra Pradesh and facilitated an ongoing dialogue with government officials covering primary education, development projects, and environmental rights. In Sovva, Orissa Samata helped farmers form the Vegetable Growers’ Cooperative and successfully lobby the Integrated Tribal Development Agency (ITDA) for assistance with the transportation of their goods to the market. Samatha judgment During an organizing session on tribal land alienation in January 1993, villagers informed Samata of mining companies acquiring tribal land specifically protected by the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution referring to Scheduled Tribes. Samata mobilized a grassroots movement among villagers in the affected areas and began a legal battle that same year. They filed a case in the local court and again in the High Court against the Government of A.P for leasing tribal lands to private mining companies in the scheduled areas. The High Court dismissed the case after which Samata filed