In one of India’s least developed states, more than 20,000 tribal students are being tutored, free of cost, in the ways of the modern world. The force behind the movement, educationist Dr. Achyuta Samanta and founder of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), firmly believes that what you sow is what you reap.
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… by Siddhant Sadangi for Youth-Leader Magazine
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Author Info
I’m a 19 year old lad from India, currently pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Electrical engineering. A vegetarian due to ethical reasons, I am always in the quest of “being the change I want to see”. I give full support to issues concerning the environment and animal rights. I have a page called “GreenGaians” on Facebook which deals with everything concerning the environment, animal rights and social issues sometimes. I am also one of the founding members of APEC (Awareness Program for Eco-friendly Commodities), an environmental student body.
I like quizzing, reading, and non-fiction writing a lot, and love to debate on issues I am passionate about. I also love interviewing positive change makers from all over the world as a journalist for Youth Leader online magazine (an official UNESCO project), and hope to emulate them someday.
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The Story
Samanta shares his dream and vision in an interview with Siddhant Sadangi.
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SS: Can you walk us through the events and the set up which led to the inception of KISS?
AS: From my own experience, I am convinced that poverty can be eradicated only through education. Thus KISS was born. It started in July 1993 as a modest residential school, as a part of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), functioning on a rented premises having only 125 tribal children as students. The school was registered as a separate trust- Kalinga Relief and Charitable Trust (KRCT) – in 1995-96. As the institution grew, it was named Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS).
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SS: Could you provide a brief outline of your purpose, mission and vision?
AS: Our vision is to build up KISS as a preferred centre of learning for the poorest of the poor tribal sections of the society with a focus on formal education aimed at providing sustainable livelihood and scope for all-around development. Our mission remains to empower and bring tribal children to the mainstream through education. We also strive to preserve tribal heritage, culture and values and try to nurture tribal children as “change agents” for their community.
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“Dr. Samanta has demonstrated that if one has passion to do something for society, a lot can be done. The work that he has done has only a few parallels in the whole world”
- M. Hamid Ansari, Vice president of India
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“We have been dreaming of providing education to tribal children for long. KISS is the solution”
- Dr. Shantha Sinha, Chairperson, National Commission for Protection of Child Rights
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SS: What is your primary approach to promoting this concept?
AS: It is not an easy task to lure the children to the school because tribals always believe that as extra pair of hands means some extra income. Continuous persuasion and motivation yielded the desired results and the tribal parents reluctantly sent their children to KISS, to find their children being provided with food, healthcare, accommodation and education from KG to PG absolutely free. More and more children are now turning to education, for they have understood how important education is to drive their sufferings away. As a result of this realization, the perennial problem of ‘drop-out’ has come down to zero.
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SS: Playing away from your turf always poses challenges, which were the ones faced by you while establishing and conducting your activities?
AS: Finances have always been a problem. I started KIIT as an Industrial Training Centre (ITI) with just 12 students and a paltry sum of Rs 5000 ($ 100). KIIT still has an outstanding loan amount of about Rs 400 crores ($ 80 million). Also, when we established KISS, we had to convince the tribals really hard to get their children to school. But patience and perseverance finally paid off and now KIIT is ranked among the finest universities in the country and we have a waitlist of 50,000 students who want to avail free quality education at KISS.
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SS: While you battled such challenges, what was the motivation that kept you going?
AS: We have overcome all our difficulties only due to our honest intentions and passion for work. From the very first I was clear about my vision, which was to eradicate poverty from the lives of the extremely poor. The only weapon and means I had was education. And to impart education, you don’t need anything except the desire to do so.
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SS: How is this idea different from the others?
AS: Students in KISS are provided with food, clothing, accommodation, health-care, education and all other basic facilities of life absolutely free of cost, which is much better than any other tribal hostel in the world. KISS is also the only campus having facilities like Wi-Fi system, mechanized steam based kitchen, video conferencing, C.C. Camera System and Adolescents Resource Centre in the country for any tribal institute. Students here are encouraged to ear while they learn through our vocational training programs and thus are even able to send money home for their families. We train them such that when they leave, they are completely self-dependent. It’s a win-win scenario.
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SS: What are your funding sources?
AS: The recurring annual expenditure for KISS is about Rs. 30 crores ($ 6 million). This is managed by 5% of KIIT’s turnover amounting to Rs. 18 crores ($ 4.6 million), 3% of voluntary contribution from KIIT faculty amounting to Rs. 4 crores ($ 800,000), 3% contribution from business dealings of KIIT amounting to Rs.4 crores, a newly sanctioned yearly-aid-grant of Rs. 1.5 crores ($ 300,000) from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and the rest is met by the contributions of elite guardians and corporate houses.
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SS: Is there any moment, incident, or person that has carved a special place in this journey? Our readers will like to hear about this?
AS: Well I’ld like to share an incident which took place during the times when we were really struggling to get a favourable nod for Kalinga Polytechnic. The dealing clerk’s wife was pregnant. I still laugh on remembering how the three of us were accommodated on a bike. I remember how I had to mortgage my wrist watch and helmet at a road-side mechanic’s shop to repair my bike that had punctured on my way to Cuttack from where I had to borrow some money to meet my expenses at the Industrial Training Centre. Since I could not recover my wrist watch, I have stopped using one since then.
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SS: Anybody whom you would give credit for supporting (inspiring) you in this mission?
AS: That has to be my mother. Sustaining seven hungry stomachs single-handedly in a family without anything substantial to keep it alive is no easy task, but she managed to do it. She is the one who taught me the art of living by work.
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SS: Do you have any future road map for your brain child considering the positive response it has garnered?
AS: KISS aspires to send 20 to 30 students to top engineering and medical colleges of the country such as IITs and AIIMS and another 20 to 30 students in the civil services in the coming years. Special coaching of the students has already been initiated to realise these goals. Further, modern training facilities for rugby, football, archery, shooting and volleyball have been setup. Considering the success KISS students have had in these sports internationally, we expect to produce many national level sportspersons in these sports.
KISS has been recognised as an internationally replicable model of tribal empowerment. In the first phase of this process of replication, work is in progress to establish institutions on the pattern of KISS in 20 tribal districts of Odisha and five states of India; namely Delhi, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh.
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SS: Any breakthroughs or achievements which you would like to share?
AS: KISS has had its share of achievements in both academics and sports. KISS students have represented Odisha and India in various National and International seminars and conferences. KISS boasts of cent per cent results in 10th, +2 and Post-Graduation. Seven students have secured first division in 12th, and five have qualified in the IIT mains examination. A B.Com student from KISS this year has also made the tribal community proud by clearing CAT and joining IIM-Tiruchirapalli.
In the field of sports, KISS teams have won international rugby tournaments including the U-13 International Rugby tournament at Manchester, UK and the U-14 Rugby World Cup at London. Many KISS students also are a part of the Odisha junior softball and volleyball team and the Indian national rugby team.
Our most recent achievers will also certainly include Laxman Hembram, a 12th student at KISS who represented India in the Malala Day conference in the UN Headquarters in New York on 12th July, 2013. Also, KISS was chosen as the only institute from Asia for a video conferencing session on Education with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on 5th August, 2013.
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SS: What would be your message for the youngsters reading this?
AS: Based on my practical experiences, I feel that in a country like India, anything can be overcome only through quality education, irrespective of caste, creed or religion.
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Watch videos on Dr. Achyuta Samanta here (part 1 & part 2)
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Links and Resources
KISS website: http://www.kiss.ac.in/
Contact Achyuta Samanta: http://achyutasamanta.com/