Six percent literacy rate among tribal girls of Nabarangpur

Sibling care and household chores are the primary roles of tribal girl children living in Nabarangpur district, Odisha. It is also one of the main reasons for highest school dropout ratio at primary level education.

The literacy rate for tribal girl children is around 6% in 10 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in Jharigaon block according to Bijaya Kumar Sethi, block development officer (BDO) for A, B, D, O blocks in Jharigaon.

The district of Nabarangpur has a relatively low literate population and holds a higher percentage of literate male as 28.10% than literate female as 9.01% as per 2011 census.
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"People are interested to involve their children in house hold chores or in skilled works that benefit them financially rather than sending them to schools”, says Kumar.

Despite, government initiating activities like mid day meal scheme, providing cycles to children for commuting and school dresses, people are not attracted, he says.

Very slowly, school drop outs are returning back to schools and at grass roots level, there has to be lot of motivational activities to increase the literacy rates among tribal communities, he adds.

Raj Laxmi, district tribal girls education co-ordinator (Right to Education- Sarva Siksha Abhiyan) says, "The government has formed School Management Committees (SMC's) to motivate parents for sending children to schools. "

The government has formed 11 Kasturbha Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (national scheme) for the girls who are not interested in pursuing school education. "The residential faculty present in the vidyalayas will train them in vocational courses that help them in future", says Raj Lakshmi. Timely health check ups and counseling are given to the girl children, she adds.

Story and Photo: Amoga