Dr. Achyuta Samanta - A True Hero for the Tribal Community of Odisha

 A social worker, philanthropist and educationist, Dr. Achyuta Samanta is one name that goes hand in hand with the efforts made in the field of tribal upliftment in Odisha. The founder of KISS and KIIT or Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences and Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology, Prof, Achyuta Samanta has immensely contributed towards rural development and healthcare while improving the plight of the tribal people in Odisha.

While both his educational institutions hold global recognition and repute, KISS individually serves more than 60, 000 indigenous kids with free education, healthcare and living facilities.

Doing justice to his role of a social reformer, Dr. Achyuta Samanta has successfully propagated Art of Giving or the Philosophy of Life. This is Samanta’s idea of bringing happiness and peace across the world through several programs, such as Kanyakiran, Education For All, India Against Negativity, New Mind, New Dreams and Art of Appreciation. Art of Giving majorly focuses on education, where students from varied backgrounds are offered free notebooks and textbooks. By way of the Art of Giving concept, Dr. Samanta has arranged for the free education of more than 25, 000 tribal candidates. Further, Dr. Achyuta also urges the common people to be a part of this concept and provide whatever they have to improve the quality of education and life of an indigenous child.

As a visionary, Dr. Samanta has been relentlessly working to offer a better way of living and education to people coming from the deprived sections of the society. It is more than 23 years now, but the able professor has not moved away from his objective of serving the poor and the downtrodden with whatever within his potential. Through his idea of serving the deprived individuals effortlessly, Dr. Samanta aims to create a world that is free of ignorance, illiteracy, poverty and hunger. It is because of his undying effort to give a better life to the tribal community that Dr. Samanta has been conferred the title of true hero for the tribal community of Odisha. His work has received tremendous appreciation not only in India but even abroad making him the owner of several national and international awards. These include Highest Civilian Award of Bahrain, 2015 and Jawaharlal Nehru Award, 2012.

This Logical Indian works with the vision to ensure that poverty does not stand in the way of a child’s education. What started as a modest effort to ensure quality education to the deprived sections of the society in 1992 now stands as a gigantic institute offering holistic and completely free education to 25, 000 poorest tribal children. Free education is available from Kindergarten to Post-Graduation along with other facilities like free boarding, lodging, clothing and other crucial amenities required for the all-round development of the students. The 25, 000+ tribal students receiving free education at KISS not only indulge in hard-core curricular education but also receive vocational training along with life skills education to grow up into empowered Indian citizens.

Dr. Samanta’s KISS foundation has widely affected the lives of more than million individuals at present and this sustainable education model is also being used to serve the poor plight of the other under-privileged and deprived communities. It is also worth noting that 60% of the students at KISS are girl children and by economically empowering and educating girls, the institute is ensuring proper education for generations to come along with proper skills development and healthcare in homes.

Dr. Achyuta Samanta’s efforts towards uplifting the tribal community in Odisha has not only won him more than 50 national and international awards but also made him the first Odia to become the member of the AICTE and UGC. On that note, he has successfully founded the Designated President of Democracy without Borders and Parliamentarians for Indigenous People. But despite all these accomplishments, Samanta leads a normal life in a 2-room rented house and constantly aims to work towards the cause of achieving zero hunger, zero poverty and zero illiteracy.