In MP, local boy brings higher education to poorest tribals…..Chinki Sinha
Laxmi Evne stood her ground. Faced with the remoteness of her village of Nandner in the jungles of Madhya Pradesh; against the 20 km she had to travel for high school every day, much of it on foot; against her parents who were unsure of sending her to a hostel to complete schooling in Kesla; faced with even despair when the only other girl from her village at the hostel dropped out. But then time came for her to go to university, the first girl in her village to go to a central university, and Evne thought it was one battle she would never win.
Till a young social entrepreneur from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, came to their school and talked to them about opportunities. Sandeep Mehto went beyond that, helping Evne fill online forms and accompanying her to Sagar, a district more than 300 km away, so that she could take an entrance exam for a bachelors degree course at Dr Harisingh Gour University there.
Mehto, 26, is the founder of Bharat Calling, a venture that has been helping rural students, especially those belonging to SC/ST categories, gain access to higher education. In their two years, they have helped around 30 students from Kesla block in Madhya Pradeshs Hoshangabad district one of the poorest in the country, with 90 per cent of the families in the BPL category get into Benaras Hindu University, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Indore, Sagar Central University and even TISS. Out of this, 50 per cent are girls.
A fellow TISS student, John Basumatary, who helped him set up Bharat Calling, is going to replicate this model in border villages of Assam.
Bharat Calling was a project they undertook as part of their Masters in Social Entrepreneurship programme, and they intend to continue it now.
Mehtos journey was not so different to Evnes. The son of a farmer from Pathrota village in Kesla block, he had his fathers support when he left his village in Class VI to study in Bhopal. He and his brother are the first persons in their family to have studied beyond primary level.
Mehto would later do electrical engineering from Samrat Ashok Technological Institute,Vidisha.
He decided to give something back to society when his father, who used to help villagers, passed away, and he saw a long queue of people waiting to pay tribute to him. He got through the TISS Post-graduates in Social Entrepreneurship, managing to continue his studies because of scholarships and part-time jobs. There was never enough, he says about his financial situation. But my parents stood by me.
Mehto completed his Masters in June this year and is also an IDBI Fellow for Rural Transformation.
In the first two pilot phases, Mehto and Basumatary used their own funds, apart from some donations, and slept on train platforms when they took students for entrance tests in Varanasi, Sagar and Mumbai.
This year, they are planning to scale up efforts and are hoping to cover 4,500 children in 21 schools from 60 villages of Kesla block. For this, the organisation has tied up with the local administration. The literacy level in Kesla block is only around 40 per cent. Education is under the Tribal Welfare Department.
Assistant Commissioner Prem Kumar Pandey of Tribal Welfare Department, Hoshangabad, acknowledges the difference Bharat Calling is making. Last Saturday, he helped arrange a meeting between Bharat Calling and schools of Kesla, which have agreed to open up their facilities for Mehto and his volunteers to conduct workshops during school hours.
Says Dr Sushma Pare, principal of Kesla Higher Secondary School: When Sandeep came to me two years ago, I said we would have to start at zero level. He worked hard and in the first instance, 10 ST girls went to Sagar University, she says.
A marathon runner and state player, Ashok wasnt sure how Bharat Calling could help him. The only thing he was good at, he told Mehto, was sports. It was Mehto who suggested a Bachelors in Physical Education. Ashok gave the exam, and when the results came, he topped the list.
Evne, meanwhile, is dreaming again. The 19-year-old says she wants to work in the banking sector, and be a role model for girls in her village.
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/in-mp-local-boy-brings-higher-education-to-poorest-tribals/820179/0