ERODE: Periya Karattupalayam is a serene village surrounded by lush greenery in Nambiyur block in Gobichettipalayam in Erode district. Yet, from these tranquil surroundings might someday emerge the next Dipa Karmakar.
Surprised? Periya Karattupalayam is home to 100 families from the nomadic Dombara community. Known as 'Kalai Kuthadis’ in Tamil, members of the community are famous for performing stunts such as tight-rope walking and acrobatics to earn money. They are notified as a scheduled caste in India. It is their skill at acrobatics that local officials looked to channel by appointing a gymnastics coach to train them in 2008. In 2018, a training facility was built for the children under a central government scheme.
The arrival
Decades ago, a band of Dombaras settled in the village. Former panchayat chairman KN Kandasamy helped them settle in P Karattupalayam's MGR Nagar by donating one acre of his land for the community in the 1990s.
"I faced opposition from my father and my community members for helping a lower caste nomadic group. But with the support of the district administration and revenue department, under the government housing scheme, land patta was given to each family and 30 concrete houses were built,” Kandasamy said.
However, the people were still resorting to performing and begging. “They trained their children in all the stunts and made them perform on the streets. Each family had more than four children and none was enrolled in school,” he found.
The school
School education department officials and Kandasamy counselled the community members and enrolled the children in the sole government elementary school in the village. But the community was not comfortable sending their children out of the village after Class 5, so in 2005, a government high school was opened here. Today, at P Karattupalayam government high school 110 of the 184 students are Dombaras. Similarly, 95 of the 105 students at the elementary school are Dombaras. The teachers take extra efforts to teach them Tamil as their dialect draws from Hindi, Marathi, Gujrati and Telugu. It was as part of these extra efforts that a gymnastics programme was set up here, perhaps the first of its kind in Tamil Nadu.
“The performing instinct is in their blood and all they needed was training,” said high school headmaster M Balasubramanian. Principal Secretary for Sports, Dheeraj Kumar said concurred. "Identifying their potential the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) decided to set up a training centre at the school and appoint a coach to train the children," he said.
In 2008, a coach, Mohanasundaram, was appointed. In 2010, a female coach, Dhanabhagyam, was appointed. Initially, the training was given at a private hall near the village bus stand and at the school's open ground. The team had no place to store their equipment and practising during the rainy season was difficult. Based on a request made by the coaches, in 2014, a 12*18m flooring was created at a cost of Rs 5 lakh, under the central government's Panchayat Yuva Krida Aur Khel Abhiyan scheme. In 2017, the SDAT allocated Rs 11 lakh to construct compound walls, storerooms and toilets. Another, Rs 5 lakh was allotted from the Collector's fund for lights and fittings, water facilities and to build extended platforms.
In 2018, the gymnastics training centre was inaugurated by Education Minister K A Sengottaiyan.
‘One of a kind’
"This gymnastics centre is one-of-its kind in Tamil Nadu as it is set up inside a government school especially for those children. We have increased the students’ strength from 20 to 30 in August 2019. Based on the requirements and performance Rs 8.60 lakh is being sanctioned annually for this centre." Dheeraj Kumar added.
The students have brought laurels to the school by winning in district, state and national competitions. They won four bronze medals in the 2016 national games. They have also created records in district and state-level competitions. The students won the CM’s trophy in 2016 and 2019. The P Karattupalayam school team won 14 gold medals, 10 silver medals and six bronze medals at the third state mini age category artistic gymnastic championship 2019 -2020 in Chennai this month.
A life-changer
"I have been training in gymnastics from Class 1 and have won several medals. In 2019, I won a silver medal with a cash prize of Rs 75,000 at the CM’s trophy tournament. This sport keeps me motivated and has helped me develop mental strength,” a class 10 student Eswari said.
Another student, Krithika, who left school after Class 10 last year and was forced into an early marriage, said her parents had forced her to drop gymnastics and education to get married. “It was my coach Dhanabhagyam with the help of the Child Welfare Committee that rescued me. They also convinced my parents and now I'm studying in Class 11 and practising gymnastics as well,” she said.
Caste and culture divide
However, getting the children to come for practice is a daily struggle, said Dhanabhagyam.
"Parents don't allow their children to come for three reasons: preconceived notion that it is just a co-curricular activity, prevailing caste divide and lack of transport facilities. Parents do not understand the importance and benefit of gymnastic training. However, students who were trained in gymnastics got college admission under sports quota and a few of them also got jobs as trainers,” she explained.
“Since most of the parents work as daily wage labourers at construction sites, they leave early in the morning for work and return late. They are not able to pick up and drop their kids for training. Also, many of them are not aware of such a facility as it is located in the interior village. Apart from this, other community people are not willing to send their children as they don't want to mingle with Dombaras," she said.
Against the odds
However, against the odds, two boys --Tamilarasan and Arjun -- from the community have completed a 40-day gymnastics coach training programme under the Sports Authority of India in Kolkata and are working as trainers in a club called Gymnora in Chennai. "All thanks to the coach and school management without whom I wouldn't have achieved this. The cash prizes I got during my school days helped me in higher studies. I have trained 33 children and they have won 66 medals in a mini state-level tournament held in Chennai recently," Tamilarasan said.
Meanwhile, to ease the transportation issue, a few government buses stop by the school to pick up and drop the children both morning and evening.
"Managing to re-enrol dropouts is challenging. This year, in elementary school, we have about six dropouts and in high school, there are 13. The main reason is some parents take the children to other districts to perform. So we trace them and bring them back to school after counselling,” elementary school headmaster G Ravi said.
“The school is a role model to many for not just teaching and developing children's talents but also in building a strong community,” said Chief Education Officer Balamurali.