Dalit colony gets 1st BEd rankholder

KOZHIKODE: A dalit colony in literate Kerala has produced its first BEd degree-holder in  its 75th year of existence.  She is   K. Vismaya  of Kongapadam in Palakkad district, who, along with her  family,  had fought many  odds on her way.  She is a beneficiary of    ‘Ente Kongapadam,'  a special tuition class programme launched by C.D. Sajith Kumar  at the colony five years back, which  kindled the spirit of education  among the residents.   So far,  31 students have passed SSLC, six Plus-Two and many have gone for  BEd and ITI courses.

“But for the tuition class, I would not  have even passed SSLC," says Vismaya. While doing BEd, she too took classes for the students under the programme. After Vismaya passed  Plus-Two,  her  father K. Guruvayoorappan took her to a government nursing college at Malampuzha.  He said,  "the principal spoke in English which I didn't follow.   I requested her to speak in Malayalam. But her response was  how the girl could study without knowing English. There were many such instances where we didn't get a helping hand," said Guruvayoorappan, a welder by profession.

Vismaya then joined for BSc physics and later  BEd.  Sajith Kumar said  dalits have to face humiliation and insult  for daring to study. Sajith had come to Kongapadam to do BTech at the NSS Engineering College in the  90s and  the pathetic condition of the colony people prompted him to  sow the seeds of education among them.

“The boys dropping out of schools went  for labour work and girls for household chores. That was  Kongapadam five years back," said  Sajith.  However, the tuition classes had to be  terminated due to the  local resistance at the behest of CPM. "The CPM local leadership is choking the Kongapadam dalit education model for fear of losing its  vote bank. So, we are temporarily stopping the class," said   Sajith Kumar. Interestingly, the same Kongapadam model had won accolades at the Loka Kerala Sabha (LKS) organised by the LDF  government in January.