The teacher who dreams big…for her students

I was named after the evening – that time of day when everything turns dark. My family thought that my dark complexion suited the name ‘sandhya’ [evening].

My dark skin meant my family did not shower me with affection. This was my childhood experience, and it made me aware of discrimination based on skin colour; it stayed with me.

I was born in 1996 in a family of Munda Adivasis in Sanghari village of Jharkhand. My mother is Nirmala Kerketta, and my father, Suman Lakra. Our home in Chatra district is surrounded by forests, rivers and streams, and lies on Jharkhand’s border with Bihar.

My parents are farmers – we have two acres on which we grow vegetables like okra, beans, potatoes, cauliflower and carrots, depending on the season. We also cultivate paddy. But this barely earns us anything – our annual income is around 30,000 rupees from all earnings including what my father gets from working as a daily wage labourer on farms, road construction and digging tubewells.

My parents also sold liquor made from mahua [Madhuca longifolia var. latifolia] – the money helped feed our family of six – I have two sisters and a brother. They also set up a small sweet shop in the village to help pay for our education.

Living in a large family of about 15 meant that there was always a lot of work, and as I grew older, I had to work like a servant in my own home. By the time I was in class 2, around 7 years old, I used to do all the household chores – cooking for the whole family, washing utensils, cleaning the house, cleaning the goshala, taking the cows and goats to graze, collecting firewood from the forest, and more.

I finished Class 12 in 2015 and keen that I should continue my education, my father decided to put me in a hostel in Ranchi, about 175 kilometres from home. That’s how I went to St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi, for my higher education in political science.

In college, classes were in Hindi, but at home I had spoken only Sadri and Munda. Often I couldn’t understand what was being taught. I was also not familiar with the world outside my own region. All in all, completing my graduation was the biggest challenge of my life. It was difficult for me to study while being away from home and family, but I successfully completed my graduation in 2018.

I wanted to study further after that and applied for admission to the law college in Chhota Nagpur. But our economic condition was not good enough for my parents to support me.

So I returned home and continued my search for a government job. But I got no job nor could I pass any exams to secure one. I couldn’t figure out what I should do.

From a young age I have wanted to address the difficult issues that my community faces: child marriage, daayan pratha [witchcraft] where women are termed as witches, poverty, malnutrition, violence against and hunting of wild animals, displacement, increasing deforestation and more.

While still in college I had volunteered at the Nehru Youth Centre (Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan) where sports and youth awareness programmes are organised. Before that in 2015, the forest department had asked me to join in for conservation education and community mobilisation. It was not paid work, but I was happy to be included.

In 2022-2023 I was awarded the Green Hub fellowship. It was a turning point in my life. I made a film, Flights of Hope, a documentary film to shine a light on my community. This was very difficult…initially there were so many technical issues. I felt I had no skills, but my mentors motivated me.

With my documentary film, I want to share the facts about our region with my people. The language and culture of our Adivasi community is fast disappearing and I want to preserve and take forward our heritage.

Around this time, I saw young children from my community begging from tourists at a nearby waterfall. It made me feel helpless.

I had always imagined that I would be able to do something for myself and my community to bring change, but despite my education and skills, I was not able to do much.

The education system was not running properly, and children were not studying well. Many are unable to complete their education. They would drop out and migrate to other districts and states to work as labourers. This has been happening for generations as there are no jobs in our area.

The image of children begging stayed with me. So I went to meet the anganwadi worker in Jaled village of Chatra district. I found that the government school in Jaled village had only one teacher for Classes 1-8.

Without enough teachers, the children – mostly Adivasi and Dalit – were left to fend for themselves and learn on their own the entire day. They would roam about, eat and return home. The children in Class 7 did not even know the alphabets अ,आ, क, ख, ग or A,B,C,D.

I did not want these kids to struggle for the most basic needs as I had to in my childhood, so I decided I would teach for free. The school is five kilometers from my home and the road is in poor condition. We have to walk through the forest – of sal (Shorea robusta), mahua, tendu (Malabar ebony), bamboo, palash (Butea monosperma), khair (Senegalia catechu) and more – to get there.

Meanwhile my family’s economic condition was worsening and in 2022, I started working with the forest department in their awareness programmes – speaking to the community about how the forest is under threat, how to use the firewood wisely, and about biodiversity. It’s contractual work and pays around 20,000 rupees a month.

To bring change in society, I want to build awareness of children’s education. If I am able to improve the economic condition of families, I will consider my work an important contribution. I strongly feel that only education can improve the condition of my village.

I started my journey as a teacher by taking primary level classes. I gradually taught basic reading, writing and speaking skills in Hindi. But it was very difficult to teach 70 children at the same time. In the beginning, the children were not interested.

I started teaching them about forest conservation, wildlife protection and more, using games and fun activities. I taught them how to identify fruits, flowers, leaves, animals and birds. We looked for plants like jungli pyaaz (Urginea indica), hadjod (Cissus quadrangularis), musli (Chlorophytum borivilianum), dhatura (Datura stramonium), chironji (Buchanania lanzan), and bhelwa (Semecarpus anacardium). I made them draw pictures of medicinal plants and leaves found in the forests to help them remember this information.

I took them on nature education trips where we learnt about the biodiversity in their forests. I also started to play with them – we learnt poetry and music together. I encouraged them to share their thoughts.

This helped the children connect with me, and their interest in school started growing. Their attendance also improved. Even those who were not enrolled in the school started to attend.

Khushboo Kumari, who was in Class 7 and 13 years old, had never been regular to school. Her mother used to make her stay home and do housework. When Khushboo started attending evening classes regularly, her mother noticed my efforts. She began sending Khushboo to school regularly; her housework also reduced.

More parents started encouraging their children to study. Earlier, the attendance was just 16 children out of a total 86 students in the school; within three months, it jumped to 72.

Some local youth joined me and started helping with the children’s education. Girls who had studied in the same school used to peek through the windows when I would teach. Eventually, they started helping me teach the younger children.

Now when I don’t go to school for even a day, children are disappointed and await my return!

Change is coming: a few parents who can afford it, have started sending their children to towns for better education. In the beginning, they wouldn't understand the point of studying. But now, children dream of becoming police officers, teachers, doctors.

I feel a sense of motivation coming into my life. Children are dreaming of studying more and building a better future. That gives me hope.

This story was originally reported in Hindi.