Bengal Sabar Welfare Trust

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Bengal Sabar Welfare Trust

Teacher Warrior Arup Mukherjee Puncha Nabadisha Model School A 42-year-old employee of the Kolkata Traffic Police, Arup Mukherjee’s vision of education for the Sabar tribe developed during his childhood. The people belonging to the Sabar tribe are found in Purulia district of West Bengal, along with a few other states like Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The Sabars are mentioned in literature as old as the Mahabharata. The British listed them as a criminal tribe in the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871. To walk into their village feels like taking a trip back to several decades. There is no electricity. The Sabars are shy of outsiders. They live in huts with no toilets (they go outdoors), entire villages have a single tube well to draw water from and for food, they catch tadpoles, snakes, mice, small birds, etc. Often to overcome the misery of an empty stomach, they get addicted to cheap liquor. Illiterate and ignorant, they do not know anything about the government’s policies to help them or who to approach to receive such aids. Arup bagged a humble job in the Kolkata Police, got married, and had twins, all the while holding on to his childhood resolution. The opportunity came when a kind neighbour offered him a plot of land. Arup took a loan at work and built a boarding school for the Sabar children. He started bringing in children of the extremely impoverished families. The temptation of education would not be much. So he tempted them with the promise of good meals every day - an irresistible offer! Puncha Nabadisha Model School started with 20 children and now accommodates more than 80 children. Most of the children have families who lack access to even two meals a day or a sweater in the winters. Arup employs a local husband and wife duo for the cooking, maintaining stock and other necessary work. Another Sabar woman sought refuge there to escape her abusive husband. She cleans the place, washes the children’s clothes and does other chores. There are two local teachers, who teach the children all subjects in a somewhat informal, home-schooling manner. Though he can only afford to pay everyone a very meagre salary, Arup says the teachers as well as the domestic help are very sincere in their supervision of the children. The older children (between the ages of 10-15), go to the government’s primary school that happens to be in the next building. The local hospital is also nearby. Arup is determined to make these kids pass out of school, after which they will be eligible for government jobs reserved for scheduled tribes. They are also doing well in their studies. They wear decent clothes, get help with their studies, eat well and are much loved. From hunting birds to attending school “As you know, my work is for the most backward tribes of Purulia. You have to see to believe that people can live in such primitive conditions even in the 21st century. There are entire villages where not even a single villager owns a bicycle – villages without electricity or any proper means of transportation. People fall asleep intoxicated to avoid the pangs of hunger. I elaborate so much of the background, to make you realise how overwhelming it is to see children, who were hunting birds with bows and arrows, to wear clean uniforms, eat a filling meal and go to school every morning.” End to exploitation “I have been hugely inspired by the work of Mahashweta Devi, the Padma Vibhushan winning Bengali writer who earned the name ‘Mother of the Sabars’. The villages across Purulia are developing fast. We are adapting modern lifestyles. But the Sabars are still living in poverty and darkness. Their illiteracy is a weak spot that is being mercilessly exploited by people all around. This fact itself is my biggest motivator. I want to do what I can to change this scenario.” Education – the only chance “My vision is for the Sabar children to get quality education, learn to interact with people outside their tribe, get government jobs and live lives of dignity. They can go back to their tribes and explain the value of education. Nothing drives home an idea as strongly as a real life example. Education is the only chance they have – to exposure, to broader perspectives, to jobs, technology and an end to abject poverty. That is where my goal lies, to educate one child at a time.” OUR ACCOUNT DETAIL Puncha Nabadisha Model School A/C no - 0557010438346 IFCS code - UTBI0PNC026 Bank Name - U. B.I Branch - Puncha