On July 20, I attended a program that introduced me to Ekal Vidyalaya. For an hour and a half, I saw video clips about Ekal Vidyalaya and listened to organizers from the US and India, who explained the education movement more thoroughly. The more I learned of this movement, the more excited I became of the whole idea of educating India’s tribal population.

I am aware of the many organizations that collect money to help the unfortunate. However, this type of aid is only a temporary measure. India’s poverty cannot be eradicated without a grass-root education movement. The Ekal Vidyalaya concept addresses to the very core of this issue.

What Ekal Vidyalaya does is establish one-teacher schools consisting of thirty to forty students who learn reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and hygiene. With basic education, tribal citizens would be able to communicate with the outside world and would be less susceptible to exploitation. Citizens would also be more aware of population issues and would then be more cautious of having too many children. They would be informed about the need for cleanliness and thus be less susceptible to disease. The education would provide the tribal population with awareness of political and social issues and this awareness could remove some of the major problems in India.

I feel that the consciousness throughout the western world of this movement will help the movement to expand more rapidly and take it to a higher level. The meeting provided me with a great insight into educating India’s tribal population. I enjoyed the program and hope to attend more such meetings in the future.

(Note from Ram Nehra, New England Coordinator of the Ekal Vidayalaya initiative:

The Ekal Vidyalaya meeting was arranged to acknowledge and thank our sponsors. In the interest of transparency, this meeting is held annually so as to provide information to sponsors on how their money has been put to use. The head of this organization in India, Shyam Gupta personally visited various American cities to provide an update.

We were pleased to have a wonderful entertainment program for the evening. Smt Preetha Iyer, a carnatic vocalist, is a new comer to the New England area. She is a great new talent who won over everyone's heart with her with her melodious singing. We were also delighted to have Vishnu (a high school senior) present a classical music recital accompanied by Divya Kannibiran (a Wellesly college student) on the violin. It was pleasure to see children born and brought up in New England perform Carnatic music at a high level. Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation would like to thank all the artists for their presentations. To learn more about the Ekal Vidyalaya foundation, please check out our web site at http://www.ekalvidyalay.org)

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