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Non-formal Education in a Tribal Setting

Strategies for Qualitative Changes in Children

Rajani M. Konantambigi, Associate Professor, Centre for Human Ecology, School of Social Sciences, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India. rajanimk{at}tiss.edu

Shamim Meghani

Shamim Meghani is an activist based in Harda District of Madhya Pradesh and is currently working with the tribal and other disadvantaged groups of people to fight for their fundamental rights to life and livelihood. She is also currently a member of the Planning Commission for tribal issues.

Anurag Modi

Anurag Modi is an activist based in Betul District of Madhya Pradesh. He has been writing extensively on topics related to forest rights and tribal issues and in this regard has critiqued the Forest and Land related Acts incisively.

In the present study, an intervention in non-formal education was initiated to mobilise tribal people to fight for the right to the life of dignity and to have better opportunity for their children's educational needs. The intervention was initiated in four tribal villages of Betul district, Madhya Pradesh, with one village as control. The intervention was planned with participative, humanistic and constructivist approaches to change and learning. The Korku children, young adolescents and local youth, as instructors, brought about cognisant changes. Children who hid and cried on being spoken to by people outside their village and who lacked confidence, after a Bal Mela, two hours of interaction for seven months in two years and three camps, were able to speak to everyone freely, including the police. There was a change in their self-confidence and perception about self, and significant gain in general knowledge. Positive change in self-esteem that come about with clearing their formal grades of VIII, X and XII was also seen. The young instructors were especially vocal about the leading roles they could play in the Sanghathana that the villages in the region were able to join/establish and contribute to. Literacy and numeracy learning were not retained and schooling seemed to instil these skills better. The findings are placed in the premise of education for the disadvantaged and learning that is contextual and learner-centred.

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