Inlaks Shivdasani Fellows for Social Engagement 2024: Debashish Bhuyan, Chandni Jagat and Avinash Poinkar
In the last part of our 3-part series introducing the 2024 Inlaks Shivdasani Fellows for Social Engagement, meet Debashish Bhuyan, Chandni Jagat and Avinash Poinkar.
Debashish seeks to study the impact of a free community library space and children's literature on the development of literary skills of first generation school goers. Chandni’s work focuses on the displacement of tribal communities, and Avinash plans to work with the Kollam tribe on sustainable rural development.
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Debasish Bhuyan
Debasish is a library practitioner and founder of Satirtha Foundation, a non-profit organization based in Nagaon district of Central Assam. He is also a mentor in the Library Educators Course run by Parag Initiative of Tata Trusts. His vision is to empower every child with transformative and equitable reading opportunities through accessible libraries. He and his organization believe in the transformative power of libraries and children's literature for developing foundational and critical literacy skills, especially among children who are first-generation learners. They advocate for equitable reading opportunities for every child, and provide free and accessible community library spaces. Additionally, they work with government elementary school children in their foundational learning years through a comprehensive language program where libraries and children's literature are core components. Through this fellowship, Debasish will be working closely with first generation school goers from migrant Bihari families in the library space run by their organization. He will study and document the impact of a free community library space and children's literature on the development of comprehensive literary skills of those children and will also try to understand how this, in turn, impacts their critical literacy skills.
Chandni Jagat
Chandni belongs to the tribal Gond community and since childhood has fought against the discrimination and displacement faced by her community. She decided to understand these issues legally and pursued the study of law. She believes it is important to understand and educate communities on the reasons behind displacement and focus on the development of all. The focus of her work is not just litigation and research on the displacement of tribal communities but also engaging with the State and criminal justice system to increase accountability. She will also engage with communities to create awareness on their legal and constitutional rights.
Avinash Poinkar
Avinash is an independent journalist, writer and poet in Maharashtra. He works in the field of rural tribal development. Previously he has been a Chief Minister’s Rural Development Fellow, where he worked as a village welfare officer in Ghatkul which was designated as a model-cum-smart village. During the present fellowship, he will work with the Kollam tribe which is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) on sustainable rural development. He will also document the rights and culture of the community to be published as a report.
To know more about the Fellowship, visit our website here.
