Tarsh Thekaekara, New Delhi, Sun Jul 15 2012 I grew up in a small town on the border of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, cradled in the Nilgiri hills. I now work as a conservationist in the same area. Gudalur sits at the start of the mountains, at the edge of the Mudumalai Reserve. Till about … Read more
Kaathadi started a year ago, and draws from experiences of the teachers and the students of Vidyodaya, which has educated hundreds of children from the adivasi communities living in and around Gudalur. It was started in 1996 by the Viswa Bharati Vidyodaya Trust (VBVT). The aim was to address the deprivation of education opportunities among … Read more
The IIT Adivasi’ who became a frontbencher At 4.30pm on July 7, as the shadows lengthened on the freedom memorial, Hijli jail, in Kharagpur, Yama took away a campus favourite. Living alone and quietly in a small apartment outside the IIT campus was a bespectacled, diminutive, 89-year-old professor. He was “The IIT Adivasi”, the only … Read more
How Tamil Nadu’s Irula students are struggling to pursue higher education | To read the full story in the New Indian Express, click here >> As [the correspondent] travels across the northern districts of Villupuram, Kallakurichi, Vellore, and Tiruvannamalai, it becomes clear that hundreds of Irula students, like Dhanalakshmi, have been struggling without a community … Read more
COIMBATORE: A grassroots movement to keep Adivasi kids in school has seemingly worked wonders in over 320 tribal hamlets in Gudalur, Nilgiris. The Adivasi Munnetra Sangam, Gudalur, spearheaded a movement that prevents Adivasi children from dropping out of school, by involving local tribal communities in the process. Members of the Sangam said that in the … Read more