When the weakest, poorest are able to empower the nation

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: India prides herself on being the world’s largest democracy. Democracy means the rule of the free. But too many Indians are not yet free. Poverty and illiteracy have kept too many enslaved, exploited by the powerful and the corrupt. When not exploited, they are often patronised. We even use a constitutional word, originally coined to ensure economic and social equality , calling a huge mass of our population `backward’. But do we really know what we mean when we use the word `backward’ so freely?

In my state, considered among the poorest in India, a quarter of the population are from tribal communities, considered the most backward and certainly the most exploited in Indian society.

Recently, I met a group of tribal students of Malkangiri, one of India’s most deprived areas. They belong to the Bonda tribe, a tribe not only considered backward, but also primitive. They were the first children from their community to have completed high school. Each student shared the same ambition, to return to Malkangiri as a teacher and empower other tribal children.

Then we have the tenacious Tulsi Munda, a tribal woman who has released hundreds of tribal children from a future as exploited daily labourers by setting up a school in Orissa’s mining area. As a girl, Tulsi Munda had herself worked in these mines as a labourer. It is an interesting fact that when tribal children go to their schools, they are out-performing many children attending general schools in the rest of the state. If only the others could be as forward as such ‘backwards’.

The women of the self-help groups have gone from breaking stones by the roadside to becoming masons and plumbers and electricians. They hold their own assets and are passionate about educating their children. They often head Pani Panchayats we have formed all over Orissa to give villagers control over their own water resources. And free of the spectre of destitution, they are changing the social fabric of the state.

As one group told me, there is a big difference between a single woman going with a grievance to a police station and a thousand women going with her. These women are no longer afraid of the powerful, whether they be policemen, bureaucrats, politicians or even their in-laws. If only everyone were as fearless as these women have become.