Tribal kids make a mark in education, thanks to joint efforts by govt, NGO

Madurai: A joint initiative between a government agency and a non-governmental organization (NGO) has resulted in brightening the lives of 155 tribal students from Virudhunagar, Tirunelveli and Theni districts, who were till recently deprived of basic education, but making a mark now.

The NGO, PACR Sethuramamal Charity Trust started the tribal welfare service aided by Tamil Nadu adi dravidar and tribal welfare department at Rajapalayam in 2004. They met tribal people in Ayyanarkoil, Attikoil, Thaniparai, Sadhuragiri hills interacting with them day by day and satisfied their basic requirements like ration cards, voters Id, community certificates, government insurance schemes, old age pension and most recently, Aadhaar cards.

One of the important activities of the trust was Jayanth - a hostel for tribal students, which was inaugurated in 2004 with 69 students and has since then grown to accommodate 155 now.

But, it was not an easy task for both agencies. "Tribal people don't like sending like their children to schools. We tried hard explaining the future benefits and after prolonged efforts, they started sending their wards to school. Now, they are on a par with any town or city student competing not just in studies, but in extracurricular activities like yoga, spoken English, drawing and sports," says coordinator of tribal welfare society, Murgesan.

Their efforts started yielding fruits slowly as 33 students completed Class 10 in the past 10 years. Of them, M Pandiselvi is pursuing her BE computer science, while K Kaliammal secured 1033 marks in Plus 2 this year and joined BCom. "We also give skill training on how to make herbal medicinal products, cattle feeding and mushroom cultivation," he added.

"We were separated from the society for too many generations and only now started concentrating in education, culture, family relationship, dress code and others. Now, I advise my relatives and neighbours to avoid child marriage," says S Mahalakshmi, 25 from the paliyar community, who completed her BSc nursing in 2015 and is employed in a private hospital in Rajapalayam in Virudhunagar district.