Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh: When Chandra Dev Singh was asked where he would stay in Amarkantak, a remote tribal town in Madhya Pradesh, the immediate answer that occurred to him was: “A tent.”
That was in August 2008. The university he was going to launch in the town located on the border of Chhattisgarh did not have any official land allotted, no administrative staff, teachers, or even students. Yet it was, by all official pronouncements, India’s first central university for tribals, being launched to promote education and research among tribal communities.
Chamru Singh Banjara of the Baiga community studies by the light of an oil lamp at his cousin’s hut, where he lives. Difficulties with his eyesight prevent Banjara from studying at night, and he can’t afford a doctor’s fees.
A year on, Singh prefers to focus on the triumphs rather than the challenges he faced when launching Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (IGNTU). Half of the university’s 282 students are tribals from the neighbouring remote villages, and the university has a good record of marks and attendance despite several operational hurdles.
“We are getting somewhere. There are no regrets,” he says, pointing to a full classroom.
Promise of a university in a state where 24% of the population is tribal soon brought IGNTU its unique set of students from villages in and around Amarkantak, where tribal communities such as the Gonds, Baigas, Kharias and Panikas live.
When Chamru Singh Banjara, son of a construction labourer from the Gond community, first enrolled at the university, he told his teachers that he would have been a daily wage earner with his parents at the upcoming Jain temple in town if it weren’t for the university. “My parents can’t afford to send me elsewhere for education. They can hardly manage to feed my four siblings,” he says.
Today, Banjara ranks among the top five scorers at the varsity, and joins his parents every Sunday for work. “I build temporary shelters for construction labourers at the temple site and earn Rs70 a week,” he says. He uses the money to buy himself notebooks and pens.
In its first year, the university admitted 282 students, 171 of them tribals like Banjara, for courses in arts, commerce and business administration. This year, 132 tribals have been admitted so far.
Tribal students in their classroom at IGNTU. The average classroom attendance at the university is 85%.
“These tribal children are the leaders. The only problem they face is with finances, due to which they aren’t able to reach their optimum level of performance. Some of the students cannot even buy food,” says Janaki Prasad, lecturer in geography.