Bokaro Steel
Schooling for Birhor Children
The St. Robert’s High School in Hazaribagh has enrolled 24 Birhor children in a program sponsored by Tata Steel to provide free schooling to youngsters who show a strong interest and aptitude for education. The company covers all the costs of the residential education, such as fees, room and board, so the young Birhor can […]
Further Training for Birhor Boys
Nine Birhor teenagers, who were ignored by government bureaucrats despite their having gotten educations, have been admitted to the Industrial Training Institute of the Bokaro Steel, Limited, (BSL) plant. The boys made the news about six weeks ago when they began protesting the way they were being treated. They had passed their Class XII examinations […]
Indian Government Ignores Educated Birhor Boys
Nine teenage Birhor boys are now working in laboring jobs rather than in the kinds of positions they were promised when they enrolled 11 years ago at the Bokaro Steel school for underprivileged tribal children. According to a news report in The Telegraph of Calcutta last Thursday, the boys have written to the governor of […]
Birhor Boys Go to School
A group of fourteen six and seven year old Birhor boys have been brought to the Bokaro Steel Limited (BSL) complex in Bokaro, India, for an education, and they are now running wild—like children almost everywhere. According to a Times of India report on the new arrivals, the youngsters from the villages of Tulbul, Khakhanda, […]
Birhor Supported, but Exploited
News about the Birhor last week in India’s Jharkhand state included a tragedy in one district one day and a triumph in another the day after. In Hazaribagh district, Kishun Birhor, a laborer working at an illegal stone quarry, stopped to take a break next to the edge of the hole. Due to a drought, […]
Birhor Boy Returns to his Village
Societies that want to hold on to their peaceful traditions have to be concerned about whether the education of their children will change their cultures, their economies, and their social values. Adults as well as young people face the challenge that education poses for a society—the potential advantages to individuals of more comfortable lives, versus […]
