Shaila Yadav

Plustrust Anchor, Maharasthra

Shaila Yadav, Satara

Shaila Belongs from ‘Kolhati’ Nomadic tribal community, she is founder of Samaveshak Samajik Vikas Sansthan located in Aundh, (Satara) West-Maharashtra. Shaila is very passionate about education and has put herself through her MSW, despite having to struggle to find the financial support as her family is a wanderer and it’s a traditional business. Her struggle in fact has been the motivation for her to reach out to work for children’s education within the community. She values the Kolhati cultural traditions and wants to sustain them too. She became part of Plustrust in 2018 through Plustrust RWE fellowship program. Post the RWE fellowship with Plustrust, she has received a Change looms Fellowship.

Shaila found a way forward during the course of her RWE fellowship in 2018. She established her work in three hamlets and setup Mahatma Phule support classes for children aged 6-14 years from the nomadic Kolhati tribe. Motivated by her personal struggles as a girl from this community, she was able to secure volunteers from a local college.

Besides regular teaching-learning activities, she also engages with the parent community to increase enrolment and encourage learning. She is currently planning to expand her coverage and work with other marginalized tribes and communities by identifying and working with five new RWEs as an Anchor for Plustrust.

She is also Covid-19 relief champion, from distributing ration to working on providing education to the children of community, She has helped 90 families for ration with support from Plustrust and she and her team has started classes in three regions for 85 children(in three small groups) to keep them connected to education when schools are shut with the support from Plustrust she has recruited three volunteers to teach the children in those three regions and the children are also being provided weekly nutrition meals to keep them healthy amid the times of Pandemic in June 2020.

Shaila is still working for and looking for support to move ahead with such work for Denotified and Nomadic tribes, Adivasis and the marginalized communities. The Kolhatis are a Denotified and Nomadic Tribe in Maharashtra associated with street entertainment and acrobatics. By nature of their nomadic lifestyle, children from this community often miss out on access to education. They have no way of escaping the cycle of poverty their families often face. When they do gain access, the children face exclusion and discrimination. Sometimes the teachers do not understand their dialect and the children find it hard to adapt to the teaching methods used. As the pandemic has completely put a pause on movement, the people of community are left with no sources to maintain their livelihood.