MY VISIT IN AN ADIVASI VILLAGE IN ODISHA

(auf Anfrage, schickt Theresia eine deutsche Übersetzung)

Odisha (until 2011 named Orissa) is a state in North East India.

A big part of Odisha is covered with forest and the eastern side is coastal area. About 25 % inhabitants of Odisha are tribal people. 8.6% of the total population of India are Sheduled Tribes (registrierte Stammesgemeinschaften). 90% of them live in rural areas and 10% in urban areas. From 2000-2005 I used to travel through Odisha, because I was working in Bihar state as a school Teacher. During my trip I saw so many children begging in the railway stations, without clean and proper clothes. I asked many people about the Odisha situation. They said, this people are not getting education and proper shelter to live, because of that they are coming from forest area to bus and railway stations and are begging for money. Whatever they get, they buy food with that money and sleep in the bus or railway stations. This is their life. 2005 was my last visit to North India. I discussed with many friends about this situation in Odisha. We often were thinking, how to get some improvement in the life of people there.

2021 Svanthanam distributed Corona Food kits to poor families in Odisha. Looking for a serious partner for a future co-work in Odisha, I met Atal through a friend.

He himself is an Adivasi (Tribal man), so he knows best the situation of Odisha people. When I got this contact of Atal, I talked with Theresia and my Indian Svanthanam co workers. They agreed to co work with him. He is educated and a local person and also he is interested to do social work among tribal people. So we got the right person for Svanthanam Odisha work.

Atal, Odisha

With his wife and 2 small children he lives in a small village and works as a painter. As he knows, how important education is, he supported for the last 6 years some Adivasi children from poor families with free tution. Svanthanam supported them in 2022 with shoes and school bags. I visited them also in September 2022, because I was interested in his work with this children. Here the photo:

Atal told me some months ago, his vision is to support an Adivasi village in the forest area and we decided, once to travel together to this village.

So Svanthanam India gave me a chance to travel again to Odisha with a good plan for supporting Odisha children. So I started my journey on 2022/09/15 from my hometown in South India to Odisha by train. 2022/09/17 early morning 3 a.m. I arrived at Odisha railway station with 2.5 h delay. Atal came to the railway station to collect me there and we traveled by bus (140 km) to the main city of his area. From the city we had to travel another 14 km to his home village. We reached his village at 9.30 a.m. (morning)

After breakfast from his house, we travelled 100 km to visit the Adivasi village. We reached there in the afternoon, about 1 p.m., because the road was very damaged and also we had to travel through forest. Some places there were no proper roads. We stayed about 1 – 2 h in the village. 10.00 a.m. (night) we came back to his house.

In the Adivasi village, we visited about 40 families. They were waiting for us and gave us a warm welcome. We met many families and children. We distributed sweets to all people in the village and talked with most of the people. They said, our children are not going to school. We have a school room in our village, built by the government, but no teacher is coming. Because teachers should come from the city and there are no buses and no good roads - so they do not come. If some government officers come for a control, then they will come and open. After some time, they will close and go. They never come again. We are not able to ask anything.

We realized, this village people are willing to give education to their children, but there is no chance. We explained them what is the use of getting education. We told them, to get a job and go to any office, you need education. After listening to us, they all seems to be happy about our future plans. So we gave them the promise that we will start 2023 a small Educational Center for their children, supported by Svanthanam. We were also very happy to hear from them, that they promised to arrange a place for teaching for us.

So for the first time, we are planning to take admission for only 10 children. Then we will see the progress for the children and families. If successfull, we will continue this Center. Between this time, we will talk to the teacher and the reponsible persons for the educational system, to reopen the school again in this village. For this plan, we need all village people to support us. After that, I think, we will be successfull in our plan. But for this plan, we need one or two years.

We also contacted this 2 young persons, who lives 15 km far from there and who are interested in traveling to the village and giving the children a basic education.

My plan is to come again in January 2023 and give myself some classes for the village people. Then we a developing our plans for 2023.

During this visit I made a decision, that in the future, I will spend more time in Odisha Adivasi villages. People there need support for education, to change their living situation. Atal and I believe, if we support them through education, they get a good chance for their community for a bright and developed future.

After coming back to my home, I started to collect clothes from my friend`s families, which I want to take with me, when travelling there next time. The travel conditions were hard for my body – this long time in the train and on the bike, but in my heart and mind I was happy, that my dreams come true and may be, we can improve this Tribal village situations.

Thanks a lot to all, who are supporting us.

Johnson / 16.10.2202