OdishaLIVE Bureau
First Tribal University in India
Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) has been granted the University status by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Govt. of India. It is going to be the first-ever exclusive tribal university in India and abroad which will enroll only tribal students. It has been declared a Deemed to be University under De-Novo category.
The University will introduce seven new innovative departments in the first phase to provide impetus to research on tribal studies and help KISS achieve a place of prominence in the tribal education and research in world, the authorities said in a release here today. As before, students of KISS University will get residential education absolutely free of cost, the release said.
Expressing his satisfaction, Dr. Achyuta Samanta, Founder, KISS University said that this has became possible due to good wishes of people of Odisha. He took the opportunity to express his gratitude to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs Jual Oram and Minister of Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan for their help and good wishes.
There was a wave of joy among the students of KISS after getting this news. Parents of around 40,000 students of the institute and the tribal community were overjoyed with the achievement.
Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was founded by Prof. Achyuta Samanta in 1992-93 in a rented building in Bhubaneswar with only 125 poor tribal students. It underwent massive growth with gradual increase in the student strength. At present, student strength of KISS has touched 37,000 (27,000 existing students and 10,000 graduated). Sixty percent (60%) of them are girl students.
In addition to formal education from Class I to Postgraduate level, a wide range of vocational skill is imparted to the students at KISS. Besides implementing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, KISS has been able to bring about much needed social changes in the tribal hinterland of Odisha and its neighboring states.
Thats great news and a gooood commendable initiative