KOCHI: When a misty morning dawned in June 2001, the birds of the Mancheeri forests were startled as excited voices disturbed the quiet. The voices were of the children from the Cholanaikkan tribal community living in the caves of the forests and the reason for their excitement was the arrival of officials surveying school-age kids. But the children weren't excited about going to school. Instead, they were fleeing from the prospect.
However, a six-year-old boy didn't flee as he was secure in the comfort that his mother will protect him from the strangers coming to get him. "But my mother 'betrayed' me," said Vinod Mancheeri, who today is perhaps the first researcher from the Cholanaikkan tribal community. Vinod recently enrolled for a PhD in Applied Economics at the Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT).
"Well, today I am thankful for the 'betrayal'. If she hadn't done what she did all those years ago, I would have been still confined to the forests unaware of the big wide world outside," he said. Speaking of his enrollment as a class I student of Indira Gandhi Memorial Model Residential School at Nilambur, Vinod said, "Do you know what Viswanathan Nair sir, who was the director of KIRTADS, lured me with? It was a banana. I didn't want to go to school with them. However, when he promised to get me a banana I decided to go along. A banana was a luxury for a child dwelling in cave shelters in the forest."
"However, if you ask me did I get the fruit? Sadly, I didn't," he added. That was the beginning of my journey into the world of knowledge, said Vinod. "Since I was enrolled in a tribal school, I didn't feel out of place," he added. According to him, there were many Kattunayakans plus the four students from his community in the school. "But times have changed now and today there are around 28 children from my community studying at the school," he added.
School days were tough, he said. "I had, in fact, thought of quitting many times. But my teachers like Unnikrishnan sir always motivated me. When I completed my class 10, Fasila teacher and Rejina chechi guided me and told me to join the Model Residential School at Vadasserikara in Pathanamthitta," said Vinod. After 12th, K R Baskaran Pillai sir of Sree Vivekananda Padana Kendram in Nilambur came to know about me through some of my teachers, he said.
"When he met me, I was breaking stones to get money for my higher education. He got me enrolled in his college and accommodated me in his home," said Vinod. This was the start of his exposure to outside culture. "I began to get a structure in my life," he said.
According to Vinod, during his school days, he wanted to become a range officer. "But since there was no one to guide me, I ended up taking humanities for Plus Two. Only later did I come to know that you need science as a subject to be eligible to sit for the range officer's test. So that was one dream down the drain," he said.
But that didn't deter him and while he was staying with Baskaran Pillai, he came across an admission advertisement of Cusat. "All my life, I had been in and around Nilambur or other tribal students. I wanted to go out and experience life elsewhere. So I applied and got admitted to MA Economics at the university," he said. Vinod also did his MPhil and now has enrolled for Ph.D.
"Between all this, I got married. My wife is from the Kattunayakan community and is a second-year ITI student," he said. According to him, his father Mannala Chellan collects forest resources for the Vana Samrakshana Samithi under the Forest Department. "My mother Vijaya is a homemaker and I have seven siblings – two elder brothers and five younger sisters," he said.
Till five years ago, there was a high number of school dropouts in the Cholanaikkan community, said the 24-year-old. "But things are changing now. However, much needs to be done. The education system is yet not adaptable to the tribal way of living or traditions. Till Class X, tribal students manage as they study in schools where they are in the majority. But after Class X, it’s tough for them to stick to education,” he says.
According to Vinod, being educated and having seen the outside world, it has become easier for him to go around getting the necessary help for tribal communities. "This is what I plan to do in the future after getting a job," he said.