Kochi: Group empowers marginalized children

KOCHI: When Attappadi plunged into darkness for a week due to a power outage early this month, Sanoop C was busy visiting houses in his tribal colony and neighbouring colonies to collect details of students who have completed Class X and XII.
Sanoop is one of the tribal youth volunteers linked to the Adishakti Summer School, which is looking to creating awareness among students from marginalized communities about the scope of higher education, and helping them apply for courses.
With higher secondary and degree admission procedures going fully online due to the pandemic, Adishakti has stepped in to help students without access to the internet to apply for desired courses. It has created WhatsApp groups to collect details of students from various districts. Group members also submit applications for the students.
An initiative of Adivasi Gotra Mahasabha founder M Geetanandan, Adishakti Summer School was established in 2014 to stem the dropout rate among dalit and adivasi students in the state.
“Most of the students in my area do not have internet connectivity to apply for degree courses. I collected their details and sent them to WhatsApp groups formed by Adishakti Summer School,” said Sanoop, who belongs to the Kurumba community and hails from Gotyarkandi ooru in Attappadi. A third-year degree student, he aspires to join the police and is preparing for his SI test.
Vanitha V, a volunteer from Marayur in Idukki, struggles to convince members of her community about the scope of education. A member of Hill Pulaya tribe, Vanitha helped four students from her community apply for Plus One.
“Most of the children in our community drop out of school early. Though some of the families reside in town, there are around eight ‘kudis’ in the interior forest. They are reluctant to come out,” said Vanitha, who herself braved the odds to emerge from a kudi to pursue higher education. Vanitha is currently preparing for the civil service examination in Thiruvananthapuram.
The group has so far helped around 100 students apply for higher studies. Adishakti conducts camps for students every year. These camps help identify skilled students and give them assistance in pursuing their areas of interest. Most youth who are part of this year’s admission initiative were participants of camps conducted in previous years.