Pipal Tree

The Children's College, a learning community of children at the Nagarhole forest area near Mysore (4 hours drive from Bangalore, India) provides a sanctuary for adivasi (tribal) children whose parents’ lives were brutally disrupted by the construction of the large Kabini water reservoir and by the new forest conservation laws which stated that human beings who lived in the forest were a threat to flora and fauna. Denied access to their traditional ways of making a living from the forest, adivasis must migrate to find work. Adivasis are the poorest people living around the Kabini reservoir, struggling to eat even one simple meal a day. Their children must fend for themselves and make a living from the limited hunting that is permitted by the authorities or forage what they can in the forest.These children are not orphaned or unloved. They are rooted in place and in the community of that place. But they are not well cared for as community resources are limited. They are straddling the cultures of tribal and modern India and they have little hope of thriving without adequate access to nutritious food, clean water, shelter and education.

Who we do it for

Two key factors have made it difficult for Tribal Children, particularly the girl child, to develop good competencies to compete with regular children:

Tribal children have difficulty with the pedagogy used in schools. Unlike other village or town children, they are experiential learners rather than rote learners. In absence of modified curricula and teaching methodologies, tribal children fall back in both language and STEM education. Competencies in both these areas are required for advancement into the semi-skilled labor force which pays more and is more stable than the daily wage-earning unskilled labor force.
The tribal children are also handicapped from acquiring digital skills that are now very necessary to live in the world outside the forest. They do not have access to computer resources and may have no access to even basic smart phones. Most of their parents have basic feature phones that cannot access digital content.

To address these needs and to provide supplemental education to Tribal Girl Children, including after school tutoring and helping them revise and relearn basic concepts, Pipal Tree established the “Children’s College”, a residential facility for school going girl children from the tribal communities was established in 2015. This stemmed the tide of the girl child does dropping out of school, kept her more focused and confident at school, resulting in better performance academically. Because of Pipal Tree’s intervention, some children have been able to pursue higher education as well.

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How we do it

In the modern world so many people are challenged and traumatized by change which overwhelms their ability to cope using traditional skills in the community. By working directly with the community to support its efforts to adapt and by providing a safe, secure and affordable environment for its young, we help facilitate a transition that respects rooted values and traditions while enabling livelihood. We do this with a ratio of 3 adults to 15 children, using representatives from the community and outside, all of whom are trained to deal with the needs of challenged children. Our staff comprises of teachers with degrees in education and trained in methods related to the proper and engaging teaching of core subjects.

By day the children go to the government school which has poorly motivated teachers and inadequate facilities. But there is no other choice. The evenings and weekends allow time for the students staying at the Children’s college to improve their understanding of math, science, history, geography, cultural and environmental studies. Enhancing their reading and writing skills are a primary concern. Classes at The Children’s College are conducted in the local language (Kannada), but English language learning is a core priority. In theory, a good knowledge of the local language should be sufficient, but in a globalising world, English language skills are essential for jobs and geographical mobility.

The College runs for 12 months of the year, thus enabling stability for children whose parents are frequently migrating from place to place. As far as possible, the Children’s College encourages children to visit their parents at least once in three months. Parents are of course encouraged to visit their children on a regular basis.

Why we do it

The need is great in a modern state like India to integrate economic development with social development and environmental stewardship. Adivasi people and their children have much to contribute. We must harvest their centuries of wisdom about living sustainably on this planet and enable them to contribute to our shared future.

The goal of The Children's College is to educate the children of the forest who may then help us all bridge the increasing divide between the earth based knowledge we need to survive and the mechanics of modern life.

Relations with parents

Monthly meetings will take place where parents, children and The Children’s College team will assess the performance of the children and the college as a whole. Such meetings will be kept informal and creative so that neither children nor parents feel intimidated.

After they finish

Those who finish from The Children’s College are considered our very own. The Children’s College will provide support to those students who wish to pursue university education. In addition the College will also encourage those young people who wish to learn vocational skills like carpentry, welding, plumbing, electrical maintenance, masonry, tailoring, repair of electronic gadgets, etc.