During the summer break, a 20-year-old who was the first member of a primitive tribe from Odisha to win the higher secondary test in the Malkangiri district is back to working at a construction site to pay for her studies.
Karama Muduli is a member of the Bonda tribe, which is well renowned for its seclusion and is one of the most endangered tribal populations in Odisha (PVTG).
In the 32 villages of Mudulipada and Andrahal panchayats of Khairput block in Malkangiri district, the southernmost region of Odisha, where the elevation is 3,500 feet above sea level, the Bonda people reside in the highlands. In Odisha, there are roughly 6,000 Bondas.
According to the 2011 Census, just approximately 6% of Bondas are literate.
After her performance on the state board examination, Karama Muduli claimed she did receive assistance, but it wasn’t enough. She didn’t fail to try, though. Because I couldn’t afford to buy fresh notebooks, she explained, “I used to write with a pencil, erase what I wrote, and start again.”
She stated: “After I passed the higher secondary exam last year, Myra Charitable Trust came forward to help me realise my dream. They got me admitted to Rama Devi University in Bhubaneswar and gave ₹1,000 for hostel expenses every month. But I found it a herculean task to meet the education cost as my family is very poor. I have no money to buy books and other stationery items…. With no option left, I decided to work as a daily labourer in Malkangiri during summer vacation,” said Muduli, who is getting ₹220 as wage.
Karma, a student at the Higher Secondary School at Govindpalli run by the department for the development of scheduled tribes and scheduled castes, received an 82.66% on the latest exam given by the Council of Higher Secondary Education of Odisha.
Her older brother Bina only completed Class 8 before dropping out of school, while her parents are subsistence farmers. She has two younger sisters: Sima, 13, is a class 8 student, and Manguli, 18, quit school because of poverty.
Prasanta Patnaik