Education is The Manifestation of The Perfection Already in Man – Swami Vivekananda
In this 21st century, when we all are racing among ourselves to reach the pinnacle of our career, people at some part of the same country are struggling for their very existence. Exigency of addressing their appetite is compelling them to ignore Education, their own birth right. And this is giving birth to child labour, child marriage, delinquency… and the circle continues.
This project is all about to bring SABAR tribal children of Purulia, West Bengal to the lights of literacy. SABAR is a tribe which predominantly lives in the distant villages of Purulia(West Bengal), Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha far from all the lights of civilisation. In West Bengal, they can only be visible in the villages like Kesarbad, Bundi, Pungdu, Kuda, Akuibad etc. of Purulia. In the tenure of British Government, they were marked as born criminals. The country got independence, but they remain as penniless and downtrodden as before. Electricity, hospital, high schools are distant dreams for these unfortunates. Malnutrition, death at the time of child birth are considered as natural phenomena in this god forbidden place. The clan which finds it very difficult to earn food even for once in a day, considers education as a luxury. The primary school which is within 10 kilometre radius of this village, has not seen any teachers since last few years. Boys are sent to Bricks Factory and girls are married far before they reach their adolescence.
The SABAR WELFARE TRUST , based on Kolkata, has built a school in Purulia, West Bengal for these SABAR children and ensuring a wholesome development of these penurious tribal people. The trust got registered under the Sec 20 of the I.T Act, 1882 (Registration No. Q- 1-212485/17). After all the legal procedures of pan card generation, bank account creation, the trust successfully crowdfunded some money from all sections of people, bought the land (where the school is to be formed) and registered it on 4th January’18 in Balarampur Registry Office. The first brick of our dream project was laid on 10th March’18. And finally, the school was inaugurated on 26th Jan,2019 with the auspicious presence of many eminent and prominent persons. The school is a residential one, closer to the Sindri town, Purulia and far from their own villages to reduce the number of school drop outs. Our dream school is presently filled with 25 students, our very first batch. Classes have been started and initially all the kids are given fundamental education and are being assessed based on their capacity. We are following interactive model of teaching and are trying to give not only bookish knowledge, but a holistic knowledge to these little souls to make them proper human beings in near future.
The news of this trust and its activity has been published in some of the biggest Bengali dailies like Ebela and Ei Samay.
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The dream was to create a school building on a field of lush green grass where the cruel beams of the tropical midday sun wouldn’t reach students. Done. The dream was – perhaps not everyone but a handful would get to enjoy meals twice a day. Done again. The dream was to make a room where the whole world would fit in easily. It’s time now that this dream comes true – Future Campus School has sent plenty of books for the Library of our School of Dreams! The Library will be decorated with these valuable books within a few days. If one friend is equivalent to a library, then the touch of all our friends will create numerous such libraries in the future – that’s our dream now!
The dream was to create a fairytale that would come true daily before our eyes! The dream was to create a joint farm. We thank all of you for being there with us, showering your love to us with open arms. Your love and efforts will ensure that our fairytale will turn into reality every day. The joint farm is growing daily and the Factory of our Dreams is growing exponentially in leaps and bounds!
On the last Saturday, Jan 26th, we held the inauguration ceremony of our beloved dream school which was filled with the auspicious presence of many eminent persons like BLRO and Inspector in charge of local police station. But the stars of the show were our 25 little champs, the students of our first batch, who were busy in playing with balloons in their well decorated room, dressed in jersey of Indian Football Team aka school uniform. The lady masons, who worked day and night to complete the construction work within time, fell short of words when they were brought upon stage for felicitation, but their heartful smile said it all! And lastly, the entire contingency of students, their parents, other village dwellers, our guests, members, everyone sat together on the ground for having the simplest yet the most memorable lunch together.The lunch was one of the most cherish-able events for all of us for our entire lives, not because of its delicacy, but because of the fact that somewhere the thin line between “WE” and “THEY” was eradicated permanently with that supper together. With the flag hoisting, national anthem and the tribal dance by the local artists, a new chapter was started in the barren land of Purulia.
We have bigger task at our hand, not only to make these 25 kids literate, but to make 25 strong pillars who themselves will be able to work for the upliftment of their tribe, in near future.
When the dream is just few fits away from reality, our journey got another boost. Our project got captured by Ei Samay, a Bengali Newspaper.
Since the last few months, the construction of our school is being carried out in full swing. Here are the latest photos on our project !!
Video and article courtesy : InUth, Indian Express report published on 17th January, 2018, by Safwat Zargar.
Two Kolkata techies are on a mission to educate the children of one of India’s most deprived tribes.
Swarnabha Dey and Kaundinya Bose, both 24, have started a welfare trust to crowdfund its idea of establishing a residential school for the kids of Sabar tribe in Purulia district of West Bengal.
But, why Sabar tribe, you ask?
It is one of the most deprived and neglected Adivasi tribes of India, which has been living on the margins for centuries. During the British rule, the tribe was labelled as ‘born criminals’ who lived in miserable conditions without any proper facilities. Even though 70 years have passed since the Independence, the tribe’s fate has remained the same.
Dey and Bose learnt about their conditions during their visit to the region a few years back. When they returned, they wanted to do something for the lives of these tribals. It took them more than two years to plan, deliberate and frame a solution for the tribe’s deplorable condition. The answer was: education.
At this stage, the trust has acquired land for the proposed school. But it still needs a huge sum to start the construction of the school. Yet, they are hopeful to start the construction by next month. At least 25 school dropouts from the tribal village have been shortlisted for the first batch of the higher secondary school.
https://www.facebook.com/InUthdotcom/videos/408495699572149/
-Collected from News Sense report published on 5th January, 2018, by Amrita Guha.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” – Nelson Mandela.
While some people are privileged enough to receive education, there are people in some parts of the country, struggling for their daily needs of bread and butter. Education in such areas is far from the primary requirements where children drop out of the schools very often to meet their basic needs of food and shelter which in turn leads to the various societal issues like Juvenile delinquency, child marriages, child labour and others.
A group of friends from Kolkata had travelled to Purulia in West Bengal a few years back, where they had come across the people belonging to Sabar tribe and witnessed their heart touching conditions because of social backwardness, the group was deeply moved with the thought about the future of the Sabar Children without the light of education.
The Sabars is a tribe which predominantly domicile of distant villages of Purulia in West Bengal, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh. In West Bengal , these tribal people can be found only in the villages of Kesarbandi,Bundi, Kuda. They were considered criminals and dacoits during the British rule and the taboo still continues which has deprived them of modern civilised world in every aspect. While earning the daily bread becomes difficult for the clan, education, electricity, hospitals remain their distant dreams.
Thus, the group took an initiative to develop a school for these tribal kids so that they receive the basic education and can earn for their own livelihood rather than spending their days in the far off villages with empty stomachs. They created the SABAR WELFARE TRUST in Kolkata for raising funds to build a school in the Sindri village of the Manbazar area. The school will also provide residence facility to the underprivileged children along with education. The Trust is registered under the section 20 of the IT Act 1882. While much of the legal procedures have been completed with the land being registered, pan card generated and the bank account already created under the UCO bank, Kaundinya Bose, one of the group members who are aiming to impart education and shelter to the underprivileged kids speaking to News Sense said “if everyone donates simple amount of 1000 rupees each by 2000 people, then the dream and struggle of building the school would not remain impossible”.
Initially they were few handful in number now with the passing of days, more people are stepping forward and joining them in this initiative. They meet at regular intervals to update the other members about the ongoing works and they also have a Facebook group named Swapner Karkhana where they interact often about the project and let others know about their mission.
As far as the latest information, the school building will be started constructing from January 2018 itself. The school will be closer to the Sindri town, Purulia and far from their own villages to reduce the number of school drop outs.
Anyone can reach this socially backward and underprivileged tribal people by lending them the helping hand in the development of the school and ensure their welfare by donating any amount to the SABAR WELFARE TRUST. It is after all the duty of the civilised people of the nation to grab the hands of the souls of the underdeveloped regions and pull them up to the lights of the civilised nation.
আমরা গত ডিসেম্বর মাসে পুরুলিয়ার চারটি(কুঢা , অকরবাইদ , বুন্ডি , কেশরগড় ) শবর অধ্যুষিত গ্রামে ২০০ টি পরিবারকে কম্বল এবং গ্রামের ১৫০ জন কচিকাঁচাদের সোয়েটার পোঁছে দিতে যাই । শবর উপজাতি হল আমাদের পশ্চিমবঙ্গ তথা ভারতবর্ষের সবচেয়ে অত্যাচারিত উপজাতির একটি । ব্রিটিশ আমলে তাদের ” বর্ণ ক্রিমিনাল ” রূপে চিহ্নিত করা হয় । বিনা কারনে তাদের জেলে ঢুকিয়ে চলত অত্যাচার । যার ফলে সমস্ত দিক দিয়ে মানুষগুলি পিছিয়ে । মহাশ্বেতা দেবী প্রথম এই সকল মানুষদের স্বার্থে কাজ করা শুরু করেন । তার কাজের ফলস্বরুপ প্রভুত উন্নতি হয় এদের সমাজে । তবুও যে গ্রামগুলির উল্লেখ করলাম সেখানে কারোর রেশন কার্ড নেই , গ্রামে কোনো টিভি নেই , রেডিও নেই ,খবরের কাগজ পৌঁছায় না । অর্থাৎ পৃথিবীর বুকে সম্পূর্ণ বিচ্ছিন একটি দ্বীপ । শহরের সাথে অনেকটা দুরত্ব ।
তাই যেহেতু একটি জাতির উন্নতির জন্যে শিক্ষা আবশ্যক । সেইখান থেকেই আমাদের স্কুল তৈরির পরিকল্পনা । আমাদের দেশে যে সংরক্ষন ব্যবস্থা আছে , তা এই মানুষগুলোর জন্যেই করা । গ্রামের সবাই সেই আওতায় পড়েন অথচ সেই সম্পর্কে গ্রামে বেশিরভাগের মানুষের ধারনা নেই । যদি ১০ জন ছাত্রও মাধ্যমিক পাশ করতে পারে তবে তাদের জন্যে কত উজ্জ্বল ভবিষ্যৎ অপেক্ষা করছে সে জন্যে এবং এই দশটি ছেলে আরও দশটি ছেলেকে পড়াশুনা করার স্বপ্ন দেখাবে সেইজন্যেই আমাদের স্কুল তৈরির স্বপ্ন ।
আচ্ছা গ্রামে কি স্কুল নেই ? নিশ্চয়ই আছে , প্রাইমারি স্কুল । কিন্তু শহর থেকে অনেক দূরে হওয়ার কারণে শিক্ষকেরা মাঝেমধ্যেই অনুপস্থিত থাকেন আর স্কুলের কাছে বাড়ি হওয়ায় ছাত্ররাও স্কুল পালায় । তাই যেই জমিটি আমরা দেখেছি সেইটি শহরঘেঁষা( গ্রাম থেকে অনেক দুর ) , ছাত্ররা সেখানেই থাকবে , খাবে , পড়াশুনা করবে । তাই স্কুল পালানোর অভ্যেস থেকে রেহাই আর যারা পড়াবেন তারা ওই গ্রামেরই লোক ,গ্রামে অনেকে এমন আছেন যারা উচ্চমাধ্যমিক পাশ করেছেন , অনেকে গ্র্যাজুয়েট । কিন্তু শুধু জাতির উন্নতির জন্যে গ্রাম ছেড়ে যান নি । গ্রামেই বাচ্ছাদের বিনে পয়সায় পড়াচ্ছেন , বিভিন্ন হস্তশিল্প মেলায় গ্রামের মানুষগুলোর হাতের কাজ পোঁছে দিচ্ছেন , সমাজের বাকী সাথে কথা বলতে শেখাচ্ছেন । কেউ যদি হস্তশিল্প মেলার ” জঙ্গলমহল” স্টলে গিয়ে থাকো দেখবে কিছু মানুষ হাতের কাজ করে চলেছেন , এরা কারও সাথে কথা বলেন না । নির্মলদারা এই মানুষগুলোকে শহরে আনছেন । তাদের অন্নসংস্থানের ব্যবস্থা করছেন । তাই এই স্কুল শুধু বিদ্যার্জনের স্থান নয় , একটি সমগ্র জাতির মধ্যে অধিকারবোধ তৈরি করার লড়াই , তাদের এগিয়ে আনার লড়াই ।
এবার জানা যাক কদ্দুর আমরা এগিয়েছি । আজ পর্যন্ত যা যা কাজ করেছি ,তা আমাদের ব্যাঙ্ক অ্যাকাউন্ট মারফত হয়েছে । কিন্তু যেহেতু কাজটি অনেক বড় তাই একটি রেজিস্টার্ড সোসাইটি গঠনের মাধ্যমে এবং সোসাইটির নামে অ্যাকাউন্ট খোলার মাধ্যমে হবে । সেই প্রক্রিয়া ইতিমধ্যে শুরু হয়ে গিয়েছে । আমরা প্রথম পর্বের অ্যাপ্রুভাল পেয়ে গিয়েছি এবং ফাইনাল অ্যাপ্রুভালের জন্যে আমাদের আদর্শ এবং উদ্দেশ্যসমেত কাগজ (কমেন্টে তার ছবি দিচ্ছি ) জমা করেছি ।
এই অ্যাপ্রুভালটি পেয়ে গেলেই অর্থাৎ রেজিস্টার্ড হয়ে গেলেই একটি ফেসবুক গ্রুপ তৈরি করে আপনাদের সক্কলকে অ্যাড করে কাজ শুরু করবো এবং নিয়মিত আপডেট দিতে থাকব ।
সুন্দরবন থেকে শুরু করে ক্যানিং , হুগলী , বাঁকুড়া , পুরুলিয়া এবং অন্যান্য সমস্ত কাজে যেভাবে সবাই একসাথে আমরা পাশে থেকে কাজ করেছি । এবারও হবে । ফাটিয়ে হবে ।