Meet Sitaram Shikari, an 18-year-old boy of a primitive tribal group, and a resident of a remote forest village called Bhupatinagar in Bagmundi area, which is dominated and ruled by Naxalites.
Sitaram recently achieved a milestone when he took admission in a college in Purulia after getting help from the principal of the college. He is the only boy of Birhor tribe to complete school education and take admission in a college in Purulia.
The tribe Sitaram belongs to has a population of 278 people in the state and is confined to Purulia village only. Only 25 families of this tribe exist in Bhupatinagar village.
When asked, Sitaram said, “Education is alien to our clan. We have grown up seeing our family members hunt animals in the forest, roast them and eat them. But I had a dream of being educated. I started going to school. At present I have taken admission in the college. I want to help children of my village to get education. No NGO and no government organisation ever came to us and helped us to get education.”
The members of Birhor tribe migrated to Bengal from Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. It is a highly marginalised tribe of the country. The people of this clan hunt monkeys, wild boars and snakes from the forests and survive on them. They earlier used to earn their living by weaving ropes from the skin of a particular tree in forests. However, after the nylon rope came into business, this tribe lost their source of living. Now, they sell forest produce, mainly wood, in Purulia.
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