Man Who Educated Tribal Kids Honoured

Dr. Achyuta Samanta, a well-known education activist was conferred the “Pride of India” award on Sunday by Youthink Foundation. Dr. Samanta was honoured for the impressive work he has done in the field of educating more than 25, 000 tribal children in Odisha. Founder of learning institutions, like KIIT or Kalinga Institute of Information Technology and KISS or Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, Dr. Samanta offers free-of-cost education from kindergarten to post-graduation at KISS, along with free healthcare and lodging facilities to the children coming from the tribal communities of Odisha.

Samanta, who lost his father at 4 and who grew up in a rural environment in Odisha, founded KISS in 1993. This institute features students enrolled from 62 indigenous communities of Odisha, out of which 13 are categorised as primitive. He even has plans of starting a similar institution in Tamil Nadu.

In his speech at the award ceremony, Samanta said that he is not a business-centric person and he also does not get any kind of help from the central or the Odisha governments. He further added that it is his dream to see every state in India having the potential to educate all kinds of children.

Abdul Ghani, the founder of Youthink Foundation was all praises for Samanta. He said that Dr. Achyuta Samanta is a real living hero who has also been honoured by the foreign governments. Other attendees at the event included Shakeel Akhtar, IPS and Rajendra Rathnoo, IAS amongst others.