Women attend a knitting class as part of an empowerment project organised by the Ramakrishna Mission at Pipili. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee

Bhubaneswar, Oct. 7: An initiative of the Ramakrishna Mission has ignited hope in the lives of more than a thousand tribal students at Hatamuniguda residential school in the interiors of Rayagada district.

Similar effort elsewhere in the state is making a difference in the lives of many underprivileged villagers.

In 2008, members of the Mission started working on the tribal residential complex in Hatamuniguda, 10km from Bissam Cuttack, on a state government-provided land. What was once a deserted region has been transformed into a 100-acre sprawling school premises with the best infrastructure.

Inaugurated by chief minister Naveen Patnaik in April 2011, the school, a major tribal welfare project under the state scheduled tribe and scheduled caste development department, today houses around 1,000 students, said a member of the Mission.

The boys’ school, with hostel facilities, offers education from Class V to Plus II to SC/ST students of Koraput, Rayagada, Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

“It has been less than two years since it was opened, and yet, it has received tremendous response from tribal families of the nearby districts. We offer CBSE course and ensure that the students get free residential and classroom facilities, along with meals. Initially, we could provide accommodation to 700 students, but now there are enough rooms to house nearly 1,200 students,” said school-in-charge Partho Maharaj.

The tribal students see the school as a blessing and are happy to have been provided with facilities they had “never dreamt of”. The students vouch that they not only get books and uniforms, but also warmth and care. Apart from education, they also take part in sports, spiritual and social welfare activities. The Mission office in Bhubaneswar has been continuing its work in the city and rural areas on its outskirts since 1919. The Ramakrishna Vivekananda Mission School, established in 1933, offers free education, and since 1994, has been housing 60 tribal students from Class V to X.

The Bhubaneswar office also runs a mobile rural health unit that goes around the nearby Laxminarayanpur village every week to provide free medical services to the villagers.

While tribal boys are the beneficiaries at the Rayagada school, the Mission’s intervention is changing the lives of several women at Dandamukundapur village near Pipili.

One of them, Minati Das, 48, of Dandamukundapur village, took tailoring classes and training to make coir dolls and that has changed her life. This is the first time that she has got an opportunity to explore her creativity and skills, breaking the barriers of the village’s tradition of women being confined to the house.

The lives of Minati and around 60 other women have changed ever since the Ramakrishna Mission Sarada Rural Development Project opened a vocational training school at the village a year-and-a-half ago.

“When the training unit started, there were several obstacles in our way, but we kept on attending the classes. Now, our family members are proud that we are trained artisans in appliqué, coir-work and tailoring,” said Subhashini Sahoo.

Anjali Devi, who runs the institute here, said the women would shortly receive artisan cards from the ministry of textiles and handicrafts.