Prabodhini: A residential school for tribals

Abstract

The main object of education is to bring up the children as sensitive beings. But this attitude is not widespread in our country as yet and this is because the education system is so wrongly designed and is not inclusive for all. Here with „all‟ I mean the deprived sections of the society like the tribal communities that live in the close vicinity in the outskirts of our cities. The weaker sections of society are always neglected as the privileged get newer and newer opportunities at the cost of the children which belong to the various tribal communities. Maharashtra is the only state that allocates budget for tribal development in proportion of its tribal population, which leaves no scope for shortfall; even though the state runs 555 ashram schools and aids 554 of them. The tribal ministry is often accused of malpractices and the ground reality of ashram schools makes one wonder where the money goes. In 2008, the Tata Institute for Social Sciences (TISS) had submitted a comprehensive report to the then ruling dispensation, which highlighted similar infrastructural fallacies to what TISS did to the government in August 2015. Although a number of programmes are being undertaken by the government, there are drawbacks, due to a number of loopholes in the system. The government of Maharashtra has established Ashramshalas, residential school for the tribal kids. But these are not taken care of properly and are poorly maintained or neglected. These Ashramshalas provide eductation to many tribal kids unlike private schools which do not provide admission to every kid and whose infrastructure is cordoned off for outsiders. Inspite of these having specially designated for the tribals, the children of the katkari tribe are often seen dropping out of schools. The dropout rate for the katkari kids is high because of the social stigma surrounding them. The other tribal group consider them to be alcoholic and untouchable. This is because of their eating habit and the way of living. They eat rodents and the rodents have a special significance in their culture to the extent that majority of their festivals revolve around rodents. Another very important point is the seasonal migration of these tribes in search of employment. It is because of which the children have to move with their parents and are unable to attend school. By mapping various schools in the tribal areas of Thane and Palghar district, this dissertation examines the various spaces required in such schools which have residential zones within for 1 RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL FOR TRIBALS 11 3 the katkari kids, understanding the role/ need of the school in the particular context and conjecturing alternate uses of such spaces for income generation. Taking the Ashramshala at Parali in consideration, which has about 700 children of the tribal communities living in the Wada taluka, which lacks basic infrastructure to accommodate all these kids, the dissertation attempts to redesign the school as a community hub so that it benefits a larger section of the community and the infrastructure provided is used to the fullest even after the six hours that the school is functional. The design dissertation thus concludes with proposing one such Ashramshala in the village of Parali in the Wada taluka of the Palghar district of Maharashtra for the upliftment of the katkari community.