#GoodNews: This Man Helped Empower a Dalit Colony Through Tuitions

Sajith Kumar began the ‘Ente Kongappadam’ programme that has changed the lives and futures of many Dalit children.

The programme has helped 38 students pursue education beyond Class X and five students pursue their bachelor’s.

(Photo: iStock)

In a bid to help members of a Dalit colony in Kongappadam village, Kerala, exercise their right to education, 46-year-old CD Sajith Kumar began a free education empowerment programme titled ‘Ente Kongappadam’ (my Kongappadam) that has changed the lives and futures of many underprivileged children.

Kumar, who had rented a house in the colony in the 1990s when he was a student at NSS Engineering College, returned from Dubai in 2013 and saw that not a single student from that colony had been admitted to the college, reported The Indian Express.

Some hadn’t even managed to complete their primary schooling.

Determined to change this, Kumar launched the free education programme in 2013, where he took tuitions for students of classes 6, 9 and 10 from the colony.

Since then, the programme has helped 38 students pursue education beyond class 10 and five students who went on to complete their graduation. Several students even enrolled in diploma courses. 

According to The Indian Express, this is a significant number considering that up until a few years ago, most of the students would drop out of school and help their parents work in the field or take up odd jobs to help the family sustain.

Kumar had requested students from NSS Engineering College to volunteer as teachers, and once they agreed, he started holding morning and evening classes at an Anganwadi in the colony.

Around 174 Dalits from the Cheruma Scheduled Caste community have been residing at Kongappadam, part of the Akathethara village panchayat.

I spoke to the parents and convinced them that it was important for their children to study because besides being eligible for jobs, it was the only way they could fight social isolation.

CD Sajith Kumar to <i>The Indian Express</i>

Online education through laptops and a television, broadband connectivity and soft skills such as communication were also introduced as part of the programme. According to Express, Kumar spends around Rs 8,000 a month to keep the programme running.

Sini K, 17, who enrolled himself for an undergraduate course in a college, credited his academic accord to the programme.

Earlier, we had no culture of studying at home. We would come home from school and help our parents in the fields or sit around doing nothing. Now, we all spend a few hours studying at home.

Sini K to <i>The Indian Express</i>

Kumar’s programme, following its success, would be introduced in five other Dalit settlements in Kerala, starting from Sasthamkotta village in Kollam in June this year, reported Express.

(With inputs from The Indian Express)

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