SAMBALPUR: When an MLA decides to spend his first salary on a blackboard, notebooks and a teacher for children in a village, it virtually demolishes the template of contemporary politics and political leadership. Rengali MLA Sudarsan Haripal has dared to tread that path, turning politics into a force for social change.
He sowed the seed only in January this year which has within months flourished into a sprawling movement. What started as a single coaching centre in a village has now grown into a network of more than 100, providing academic support to around 1,500 children and livelihood opportunities to nearly 100 educated local youth across three blocks of the Rengali Assembly constituency.
The initiative, Udyam, was started by Haripal with the objective of providing academic support to children from economically weaker families who attend government schools but cannot afford private tuition or coaching.
The idea had taken shape during Haripal’s tenure as a zilla parishad member, when visits to government schools brought him face-to-face with the difficulties faced by rural students. While many children had an interest in studies and their parents made efforts to keep them in school, the cost of private tuition remained beyond the reach of most families.
Haripal finally decided to act on the idea after becoming an MLA. Rather than waiting for government assistance, he spent his first month’s salary of Rs 1 lakh to initiate the programme and consulted supporters and well-wishers on how it could be taken forward.
The first centre was opened at Jayaghanta village in Maneswar block earlier this year in January, where a highly-educated local woman agreed to teach children for a modest honorarium. Haripal personally arranged basic teaching requirements, including blackboards, chalk, notebooks, pencils and other stationery for the centre.
“There were no major challenges in implementing the initiative. While I arranged resources financially, the educated youth of my constituency readily came forward to support the cause, often without expecting any honorarium. We also made use of existing community infrastructure, such as clubhouses and community centres, as classrooms. In some villages, volunteers even offered space in their own homes to teach the children. The response from the community has been encouraging and has helped us expand the initiative,” Haripal said.
The model gradually expanded to villages across three blocks including Rengali, Maneswar and Dhankauda. As awareness about the initiative grew, several people and social workers also extended support, either by providing educational materials or financial assistance. Some contributors have chosen to remain anonymous. Of the over 100 centres, at least 15 have been started this month alone.
Today, around 100 educated youths from the locality are associated with the centres as teachers and receive financial support for their work. Thus, besides helping students who may otherwise have limited access to supplementary education, the initiative has also created a modest source of income for educated young people in rural areas.
“Education is what takes a person forward economically and socially. If we continue to provide this support at this stage to the students, they will go on to build better families and, ultimately, a better country. The dream of doing something for children in rural areas who lack resources is now taking shape through Udyam. We had never expected to expand so widely in just a few months,” the BJD MLA said.
Haripal now plans to expand the initiative to every village in his constituency and eventually diversify it into skill-development programmes, with continued support from local communities.