Sakthi Ramesh from Tiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu belongs to the ‘Narikuravar’ community, a prominent nomad tribe in the state which is slowly getting itself accommodated into mainstream society. Usually, these people live in the open in makeshift shelters. They eke out a living by selling bead oriented ornaments and hunting. The state government has several welfare schemes in place for Narikuravars but still there are people from the community who are struggling and remain the bottom of societal rungs. But the success story of Sakthi is something to look up to for the community’s youngsters.
Sakthi’s was a forgettable childhood. His family used to stay in the open, and they spent their nights sleeping under trees or in temples. He often witnessed his parents hurling physical and verbal abuses at each other. Poverty was the reason behind this turbulence and some days there would be not even a morsel to eat. At school, Sakthi was treated differently because of his nomadic background. The teacher used to beat him for his ‘unrefined’ behavior, so he quit school while in the fourth standard and began accompanying his parents wherever they went and helped them in their works.
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Despite all these hardships, Sakthi kept his passion for learning alive and always dreamt of going back to school. At that time Sakthi’s family along with others in the community were approached by an NGO whose objective was eradicating poverty through education. The NGO’s mission was to identify and motivate dropouts and child labourers to continue their education through residential special training centres (RSTC) run with the aid of government.
Though Sakthi’s thirst for education remained unquenched he was a little scared to step into the classroom fearing the same kind of ill-treatment meted out to him earlier. Sakthi was assured of education with dignity and he agreed to it. In the new residential school, Sakthi’s life changed for good. Every aspect of him, academics to behaviour and attitude, had a positive change due to the free and fair learning methods demonstrated at the school. It was indeed a new lease of life for the kid.
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Sakthi didn’t stop there, he took charge and began advocating the importance of education to every other child in his community. Whenever he visited his locality he would happily narrate to his friends about the teachers, free meals, new clothes and the friends he made there. He also visited the elders in the community and stressed the importance of education. The response was poor in the beginning but he didn’t quit trying. Slowly people began to realise his words and came forward to send their children to school.
Today, there are 25 students in the school from the Narikuravar community because of Sakthi’s efforts. For this rare achievement Sakthi was nominatedfor International Children’s Peace Prize 2017. He was the youngest among the 169 nominees from countries across the world. A great honour for the ambitious and selfless kid who exemplifies the proverbial lit-candle that lit many other candles.
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