Jamshedpur, Oct 11: International Day of the Girl Child (IDGC) is held on October 11 to promote the rights of girls and to empower them to fully participate in decisions that affect their lives. Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) has been working in the field of empowerment of girl child and have started the Akansha project with an objective to bring about an educational – inducive positive mindset in PVTG children. The target group of Akansha are children from Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG), the rarest tribes on the verge of extinction. The living condition of these tribes are pitiable and literacy rate is very low. To address the urgent need to improve their literacy levels and include these children, particularly the girl child, in mainstream educational institutions in 2011 Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) has launched a pilot programme with 10 students. Today Akansha touches 318 children, all enrolled in the formal schools.
Total of 318 students are enrolled in 12 schools under the programme. Of the total 178 female and 140 male students are enrolled.
Balika Birhor
Balika Birhor D/o Sukhrani Birhor and Subodh Birhor hails from Chota Banki village, East Singhbhum, Jharkhand. She belongs to a PVTG community (Birhor tribe) who is totally dependent on the forest for sustenance. She is the first generation learners who got enrolled under Akansha project, she completed her Matriculation from Carmel girl school, Chakradharpur in 2020. Balika is one among them who for the first time felt the taste of success “it was my first success and scoring such good marks in almost all the subjects, everyone cheered me on!” says Balika who scored 82% in matriculation exam.
She faced challenges in completing +12 since it was a phase of COVID-19 crisis, she explored digital learning and did her classes online and done her personal studies through ‘Digital Tablets’ provided to her through TSF. She scored 63% in her Intermediate course(science) from ST. Xavier’s Inter College, Lupungutu, Chaibasa. She aspires to become a nurse and therefore she chooses to go for higher studies, she filled the form of 2 nursing colleges and got selected to one of the most premier nursing colleges of Nursing for General Nursing and Midwifery course (GNM) in Narayani Hrudalaya Nursing College, Bangalore. Her parents were bit hesitant to send her so far as none of her family members have gone out of Jharkhand, her parents were counselled by Balika’s brother Karan Birhor and now her parents are also ready to send her for further studies. Balika will leave for Bangalore in November’22 to join her course.
She is desperate to achieve her goal and set an example and inspiration for other children of her community, she wants to serve her community and become a support for her family.
