Godavari Valley schooled by dropouts Premium

Koitur Bata: A transformative academic movement empowering tribal communities in the Godavari Valley for a brighter future.

Over two decades ago, Madivi Veeramma, a Koya tribal woman, fell in love with both education and Madivi Veerayya. Amid the turmoil of Left-wing extremism in undivided Andhra Pradesh, the couple, now in their 40s, embarked on an academic journey that set in motion a wave of change for thousands of tribal youths in the Godavari Valley. The movement’s ripples continue to be seen through the community today.

Veeramma and Veerayya’s story began in Ramannapalem, a Koya village nestled between the Sokileru and Sabari rivers in Chintoor agency of Alluri Sitarama Raju district.

In 2002, the village barely had people with formal education. There was only one resident, who had completed class X, to have a government job, working as an assistant in the Sericulture Department. There were no graduates while school dropouts were countless.

Today, Ramannapalem boasts nearly 30 government employees. Among them is Veeramma, an Anganwadi teacher, who had dropped out of primary school but later went on to complete her postgraduate studies in Sociology, the highest academic qualification in the village. Veerayya, now a Secondary Grade Teacher in a Konda Reddi tribal village, resumed his studies after dropping out in the ninth grade and working as a lorry cleaner.

The catalyst for this transformation was the academic movement called ‘Koitur Bata’ (Koyas’ Path, in English), which Veeramma describes as the ‘Mother of All Tribes’ in the Godavari Valley. “Many government employees in our village, including two teachers and two Anganwadi workers, rebuilt our academic lives through Koitur Bata,” she says.

The seeds of Koitur Bata were sown in 2001, on the banks of the Sabari River. This initiative was the brainchild of 55 tribal school dropouts who launched it immediately after completing a short-term academic project called Neo Literacy Programme (NLP) funded by Oxfam India, a non-profit working to support women and children, and fighting inequality to end poverty and injustice. The NLP prepared them to appear for their class VII final examinations.

A majority of them hailed from Ramannapalem and its surrounding villages. A large number were girls, all passionate about continuing their education.