Welcomed by the sound of beating drums and smiles on the faces of the locals, the IDIA Jharkhand chapter embarked on yet another ambitious drive, ‘A WALK TO AWAKEN’. The walk was organised to educate the village dwellers of Ekambha, Jharkhand about choosing law as a career.
After covering a journey of about 10 kms starting from NUSRL, Ranchi to Ekhamba, the IDIA team members were whole-heartedly welcomed by the village dwellers. Their excitement was evident from the welcome programme that they had prepared for us. Dressed in the traditional white and red sari of the tribal community, the Munda women enthralled the IDIA members by their welcome dance performance. Our entire group was welcomed by the mukhia of the tribal community followed by a short pooja ceremony of the local Sarna goddess, an embodiment of nature. This moment held immense emotional importance, as it solidified the efforts of the IDIA team members to connect with the local people, while trying to sensitise them towards the benefits of a legal education.
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his was followed by the felicitation and acknowledgement by the mukhia of the tribal community of the efforts that the team leader Afsar Raza and the Director Arnab Roy have undertaken to increase access to legal education. The IDIA Jharkhand team was accompanied by Mr. Nagendra Baitha, Senior IFS (India Forest Services) officer and Mr. Kaushik Bagchi, Assistant Professor, NUSRL. They also spoke to the villagers and emphasised about the importance of legal education in today’s society. Our very own IDIA scholars Yogender Yadav and Sheetal Kumari gave very empowering and moving speeches about how they overcame several barriers and broke down walls to enter prestigious National Law Universities and how IDIA was there for them all the way.
After this, the IDIA team members organised a very engaging and educational ‘nukkad natak’ on the themes of social evils like witchcraft, lynching and child rape. The motive of it was to educate the villagers that such evils should not be tolerated in the society and how to tackle such evils with education and awareness. The villagers were left enlightened and entertained at the same time as they could not stop laughing at the character of ‘Dhongi Baba’ who conveyed serious issues in a very effective manner. The members went around the village explaining how the legal field has been constantly emerging as a great career choice and how they can go about studying law. We also distributed pamphlets in order to enable the villagers to get in touch with IDIA. The members left the village with smiling faces and stomachs full of a sumptuous traditional meal with the satisfaction of having conducted a fruitful as well as undoubtedly entertaining sensitisation session.
By immersing themselves in the culture of the tribal community of Jharkhand, the IDIA Jharkhand members are striving night and day to realise their ultimate and perpetual goal: to bring awareness amongst the people from the remotest areas of Jharkhand about taking up law as a career.
This article has been authored by Anurag Anand, first year student of NUSRL, who has been a member of the IDIA Jharkhand Chapter for over seven months.
