The god of big things in Odisha

He is hailed as lsquogodrsquo by children of poor tribals of Odisha a man who sought to overcome the deprivation of his childhood to build an impressive institution that is now one of the statersquos pride and a beacon of hope for thousands of tribal familiesAchyut Samanta who lived his childhood in dire poverty after he lost his father at the age of four has been educating tribal children to ensure they are independent About 23 per cent of Odisharsquos 42 million population are tribals and they are considered among the poorest of the poor with high illiteracy rateDr Achyut Samanta with kids at the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences near BhubaneshwarSamanta started Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology KIIT as a small industrial training institute in 1993 with R5000 in a rented shed A year later he launched the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences KISS its social arm Today the KIIT University has 28 schools offering more than 100 programmes and is one of the finest multidisciplinary universities in OdishaKISS spread over 80 acres provides residential kindergarten to postgraduate level educational and vocational training for free to over 20000 tribal children from 62 tribes KISSrsquo monthly recurring expenditure works out to be over R6 crore 985000 and since its inception it has been running on voluntary financial contributions from staff students managements and wellwishers of KIIT UniversitySamanta has also set up a 1500bed hospital and developed a cluster of villages in his native place into a model one with citylike amenities Samanta believes in the Art of Giving He says the success of KIIT fuelled by the boom in private education helped him to support his humanitarian activitiesBorn on April 19 1965 in a small village of Cuttack district Samanta worked to support himself while attending school and eventually earned a postgraduate degree in chemistry before joining a local college as a teacher to lead a new life This however did not satisfy him ldquoThat is when I decided to start KIIT and KISSrdquo he saysTribal children often suffer from extreme discrimination Leftwing extremists also lure them to swell their cadres ldquoIf we donrsquot provide them education many of them will end up as Maoistsrdquo Samanta explains A strict vegetarian clad in a skyblue jeans and a white shirt and wearing rubber slippers people often find him working at a desk under a tree inside the institute garden and meeting visitorsSeventeenyearold Hadi Dhangada Majhi came to KISS when he was just eight Today he has passed the Class 10 examination and has the distinction of being one of Indiarsquos best rugby playersSixteenyearold Madhusudan Badnayak was forced to work in the fields to supplement his familyrsquos income after dropping out of school in Class 2 before coming to KISS Last year he secured 70 per cent in the Class 10 board examination and became the first boy of his tribe to achieve such a featMajhi and Badnayak belong to the Bonda tribe that lives mostly in the mountains of the worst Maoisthit Malkangiri district ldquoSamanta sir is nothing less than a god for all of us We would have been doing labourersrsquo job had we not been brought hererdquo said MajhiMany universities in India and abroad have awarded Samanta honorary doctorates He has also received national and international honours for his social enterprising and philanthropic activities Samanta says he wants to set up a KISS in each district of Odisha and in other states too Last year he set up one such institute in New Delhi in collaboration with the state governmentJatindra Dash can be contacted at jatindradiansin