Education – Tribal Cultural Heritage in India

“The goal is to prepare some model students in our villages, so that others will be inspired to follow them.” – Santal educationist Dr. Boro Baski >>

“Adivasi people have an alternative world view, which has rarely been acknowledged or recognized. Their existence was never based on accumulation or consumerism. […] All of us can learn from them. And it’s about time we started.” – Mari Marcel Thekaekara >>

“In contemporary practice, the tribal memory is greatly undermined. There is general insistence that tribal children attend schools where non-tribal children attend schools, that they use medicines manufactured for others and that they adopt common agricultural practices. All because the world has very little time to listen patiently to the tribals, with their immense knowledge and creativity.” – Ganesh Devy >>

“There is no care infrastructure in India. As a result, day care centers are too scarce to be a practical solution for working women. It is up to women to care not just for the children, but for their husbands and in-laws as well. We really have to change. When you are leaving 60 percent of the people behind, you cannot have the ambition to be an economic power.” – Poonam Muttreja (Executive Director of the Population Foundation of India, a New Delhi-based research organization); quoted in “India’s daughters”: the success story of Arti and Nasreen – women who “believe in a promise of bigger lives and will work tirelessly to make them a reality” and had to overcome many obstacles obstruction while claiming their right to education |Read the full story in The New York Times >>