A Woman's Struggle To Bring Education To Tribal Children

[JANASENA]

Tulasi Munda - " An inspirational narrative of one woman's struggle to bring education to tribal children. From an era, where education was considered unimportant to the establishment of 17 schools, she has conquered the odds. "

Tulasi Munda was born exactly a month before India won independence from the British. Very early in life, this poor Adivasi girl from one of the most backward regions of Odisha began exhibiting her independence and unconventional way of thinking. She grew up with her own notions of freedom and slavery that were strikingly different from the beliefs held by the people in her milieu.

While other children played, tended goats in the fields or worked in the iron-ore mines, Tulasi wanted to study. She wanted to educate herself, learn new things. But it was a futile desire. There was no school in their village. In any case, nobody in the area educated their girls. 

She was about 12 years old when she went to live with her sister to a different village. She earned Rs. 2 a week by cutting stones, sifting iron from the waste. Whenever she could, she taught herself the alphabets. It was difficult, but she plodded on. 

In 1964, she returned to her village. Her mission in life was clear. A victim of illiteracy, she would dedicate her life to eradicating this scourge. But executing her mission proved to be tougher than she anticipated. Villagers found the concept of educating girls preposterous. And boys had to work in the fields and mines to earn money, not waste their time learning alphabets and numbers. But Tulsi Munda was undeterred, even though she had neither students nor a venue for that matter.

She persuaded local pradhan to lend her the use of his veranda for a few hours. As children could not be spared during the day, she started evening classes. The trickle began. Before she knew it, she had 30 children. She taught them the basics. Just alphabets and numbers and a smattering of English words. 

It is a tribute to her indomitable will and indefatigable energy that over the next 40 years. Tulasi helped establish 17 schools and succeeded in educating 20,000 boys and girls. Currently, she has over 500 students, almost half of whom are girls and her school provides education all the way up to class X.

She was awarded Padma Shri in 2001 by Government of India.