| Balamitra
Badis for Adivasi Children
Dhaatri-A Resource Centre for Adivasi Education and Knowledge
Balamitra (Friends of children)
Badis are small community schools for adivasi
(indigenous) children who live in the hills and forests
of Andhra Pradesh, India. Many Adivasi children have no
access to primary education as they have to either walk
long distances, crossing streams and forests or, remain
illiterate.
Samata is a
not-for-profit social justice organisation working for
the assertion of adivasi people’s rights and their
cultures. We believe that education is an important vehicle
of self-assertion. Dhaatri Resource Centre
for Women and Children is the resource center
of Samata for education and
research into Adivasi education. Through the resource
center we help adivasi communities in 40 villages across
Visakhapatnam and Srikakulam districts of Andhra Pradesh
run their Balamitra Badis and ensure that more than 800
children receive meaningful education.
The adivasi people who form eight percent
of India’s population, live in interior forests
and hills subsisting through agriculture and forest produce,
based on the fundamental wisdom of nature that diversity
of life on earth be maintained through sustainable utilisation
of natural resources. Adivasis live in close harmony with
nature and have a deep-rooted understanding of earth and
its elements. They impart to their children traditional
knowledge and skills that are symbiotic with their ecology.
Only, the lessons are not in a class-room. Science, language,
medicine, calculations, geography, philosophy, politics-they
are all taught orally, spiritually, culturally and experientially.
Mainstream education is unable to live
up to the depth and diversity of adivasi life. Globalisation
and neo-liberal forms of education are creating a genocide
of languages, cultures and knowledge. The greatest challenge
of education in the adivasi context is in bringing a balance
between imparting literacy skills which enable them to
deal with the mainstream society, to help them gain competence
to enter into mainstream professions and occupations while
strengthening their cultural identities, knowledge and
life skills which are so strongly linked to land and nature.
The Balamitra Badis exist for this purpose.
We want every adivasi child to have the fundamental right
to education. We want to redefine a school which has always
been a place of terror and punishment for them. We believe
in making school a joyous experience where they grow up
with a strong understanding of their adivasi history,
knowledge and skills. Balamitra Badis provide primary
education for children between the ages of 5 and 12 with
a strong focus on strengthening the mother tongue.
At the Dhaatri Resource Centre
for Women and Children we have a residential
school and a research and training facility. We focus
on developing a contextual education for adivasi children
by looking within. Our adivasi children and teachers are
our primary researchers and resources for documenting
their own languages, histories and sciences. We are also
inspired by Steiner education and teachings and work closely
with the teachers and volunteers from the Waldorf community
to develop strong linkages on education for life skills.
The adivasi people’s wisdom and
spirituality should not die due to the forces of corporatised
education. Through our Balamitra Badis, we want to give
our children a healthy education while helping them rediscover
their knowledge and roots. In this harmony and joy we
give hope to tomorrow’s earth.
For more information, sharing and participation in our
Balamitra education please visit: www.balamitra.org or
write to us at dhaatri@gmail.com
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