Trigger Warning: This story contains references to violence, torture
At a learning center in Lumding, Assam, local tribal children faithfully come every day to engage in activities such as reading, writing and listening to stories told by village grandmothers. Some of these children live in the center themselves, their meals being taken care of from the attached community kitchen. Mothers who are victims of domestic violence are also accommodated here.
The center is a hub of laughter, chatter and progress. Like this center in Lumding, 160 others have been set up in Northeast India, West Bengal, Karnataka, and Goa. And under the leadership of Ananya Paul Dodmani, founder of Adivasi Connect, a foundation that works tirelessly to uplift and empower tribal communities like the Kunbis of Goa and Uttara Kannada, the Siddis of Karnataka and the Karbi, Dima and Kuki tribes of Assam.
Ananya’s story of bravery, a journey that continues every day to ensure that India’s tribal communities finally get the safe space and respect they deserve.
‘It started when I was in school.’
The communities Ananya works with have a long history of marginalization. For example, the Siddi community is among the most neglected tribes in India and has spent generations in poverty. Additionally, many tribes in Northeast India lack access to basic amenities such as education.
Ananya recounts her early schooling years in Assam, where most of her friends and neighbors belonged to Santhals and other tribal communities. “There was a certain disparity between their way of life and our way of life,” she notes.
It wasn’t until class 8 that these events became more vivid. Ananya said that most of the friends staying in the school hostel will not return after the summer vacation. Their parents told the school that they died of malaria while on vacation. Ananya listens to these stories with dismay, feeling guilty for her privilege.
One particular day while in the shop with her caretaker she was made more aware of these privileges. A local tribal woman was buying goods worth Rs. But when he handed over a Rs 20 note to the shopkeeper, he insisted that it was a Rs 10 note and refused to give him change. “I felt that these people need to be taught at least the basics like recognizing money values, writing their own names, reading bus numbers and train timings, etc.,” says Ananya.
And that’s the moment when she realized that if they couldn’t access these teachings anywhere else, she would create a place where they could.
“I started looking for kids who were wandering around and I asked them to come to the local school, where I found a space where I could sit and learn the basics. I used to read stories to them too.”
Ananya was soon joined by other batchmates who were eager to impart their knowledge to the local tribal children. The team he created would travel to villages in Northeast India on weekends, raising funds through cultural activities, soccer matches, and more.
When Ananya left school and went to college, she convinced her professors to run exchange programs that would make it easier for these kids to travel and learn. But then, an incident shakes Ananya’s world, which forces her to make tribal upliftment the goal she wants to dedicate her life to.
‘My father was kidnapped.’
Although Ananya grew up hearing about the abduction of people from the local tribal community, she realized the gravity of the situation one day in 2002 when her own father was abducted, she says. “You never know the heat of a fire until it burns your own house.”
“It was traumatic,” she recalls. “For seven days, he was tortured, beaten and managed to escape only by jumping from the third floor of the building where he was held hostage. He ran several kilometers to reach the nearest railway station to reach home. This incident left a deep impression on my mind.”
She was outraged by what happened at the time, looking back now she says her lack of education leads her to kidnap others for money. “These unconstitutional people have been brainwashed to do these things. It is only when someone does not have money to put food on the table for their child that they do something that is not constitutional,” she adds.
Ananya knew that while she was teaching the basics of education to those around her, there was a strong need to grow and scale the numbers to see a visible impact. Driven by this fire to create change, he started his first learning center in the same village where his father was held hostage after being kidnapped (a name he avoids mentioning).
She started small with the resources she had at the time. He said he plans to establish a center where children can learn and provide employment opportunities to the youth Village Buda (headman) of the village. But, she says, they couldn’t imagine her dream. So she started in 2003 with five children wanting to learn under a banyan tree.
Today, the same concept is implemented in 160-odd learning centers across India, albeit more systematically. Although these centers have been in existence for years, Ananya formally established the organization in 2019.
A welcoming place for all
In learning centers, language is no barrier. Ananya frequently hires local youth so that they can teach the children in a language they understand best. “I collaborate with any NGO or foundation that can help us make a difference,” she notes.
In 2019, when Ananya got married and moved to South India, she found many tribes facing the same problems she had seen in the Northeast. “I started working with tribes like Siddi, Halakki and Kundi.”
She explains that education at the learning centers is free, as are three meals a day. There is also a community farming model through which children and men can produce their own food, which then goes into food. A unique concept is that grandmothers are placed with children so that they can take care of them. It benefits both, says Ananya. At a time, 35 children can be accommodated in one center.
There are also community centers for unemployed men. Here, they practice community farming to grow produce and sell it in the market, while the leftovers are used in the community kitchen. With each learning center headed by three local youth, Ananya says the centers continue to thrive even when she is away.
It was always his wish. “My work is often in conflict zones and I don’t want the community center to stop working if something happens to me.”
‘No matter what, I’ll keep going.’
Apart from Ananya’s work for community centres, she also creates awareness about menstruation and has reached “90,000 tribal women” through her workshops. These include teaching women how to make sustainable pads at home, distributing pads to village women and introducing the concept of eco-friendly menstrual cups.
With 700 volunteers, Tribal Connect is transforming the lives of people from marginalized communities across the country. Ananya was awarded the Karmaveer Chakra in 2019 for her work.
“Sometimes I see children from broken homes coming to the centers just for food. But in 10 days, they change by looking at their surroundings and we inculcate good teaching habits in them,” she says.
She narrates an example of a girl who stopped coming to the learning center when she started menstruating and the family refused to leave the house. “I stayed outside their house for two nights, catching a cold and fever in the process, but I didn’t budge until they promised to return to the center.”
Twenty-two long years of continuity and Ananya is still going strong.
How?
“It’s your willpower,” she affirms. “Our community center is not always walled. Sometimes it is just a tent, swept away by heavy rains every year or trampled by elephants at other times. But what sets us apart is that we reinvent every time.
To this she adds, “Everyone experiences trauma. It’s how you change your life that makes all the difference. I chose to be a victim of what happened to my father, but instead I saw fear in my eyes and chose to open a center in that place.
“You have to be your own cheerleader. Always.”
You can learn more about Ananya’s work here.
(Editing by Divya Sethu)