First tribal university to be established at Amarkantak, MP

The nation will get its first tribal university - Indira Gandhi National Tribal University - as the Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh would lay the foundation stone at Amarkantak on April 19.

The Union Cabinet on June 15, 2007 had first nodded for its establishment with an aim of promoting higher education among sizable portion of tribal population of our country who have no access to higher studies and are at disadvantage stage.

Reportedly the enrolment of the vast tribal population in higher education is too low as the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) is only 6.61 compared to the national GER of 11.6. Especially the GER of tribal girls is of major concern which stands at 4.69.

Low enrolment and inaccessible education has resulted in low economic status of tribal communities. Though the high concentration of tribal population in the North-Eastern States have at least one Central University in each State but there is no Central university in other tribal concentrated area including Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Gujarat.

The University will be funded by Central Government through the University Grants Commission, like other Central Universities. Though the University would have pattern of the existing Central Universities, but special provisions have been visualised to accommodate some features that will be specific to such University. The salient features of the proposed University would be as under:

* Besides its headquarters at Amarkantak, the University shall have such number of regional centres and campuses in other tribal areas. * The main objective will be to promote - studies and research in tribal art, culture, tradition, language, custom, medicinal systems, forest based economic activities, including special studies in the flora and fauna, and advancements in technologies relating to natural resources of the tribal areas. * Special provisions for the promotion of educational, economic interests and welfare of the members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes by providing adequate percentage of seats during admission and employment. * The University will establish at least one school in every Regional Centre, as a model school for the schools of the region. * Adequate representation will be given to the tribe among the authorities of the University like Court, Executive Council, Academic Council, College Development Council, Boards of Studies, Academic Boards, Management Boards and Finance Committee etc.

The university to come up at Amarkantak will for sure help to change the face of tribal societies who have legged behind in terms of education. It will also create a knowledge pool of various culture and tradition associated with them.