From Forests To Firewalls: How SWAYAM Is Empowering Tribal India Through Free Digital Education

By Arun Prakash M

India’s linguistic diversity is only seconded by the talent it produces. Despite having a late start in aligning with global education practices, India has made tremendous strides, with significant developmental efforts being implemented continuously. However, the overall objective of the educational developmental efforts remains at a nascent stage, but the impact of the public-private partnerships has been massive, to say the least.

Right now, what India is looking forward to is far beyond basic education for its vast population, instead focusing on tapping a previously untapped source of talent in its massive tribal communities, the majority of whom remain outside the modern workforce but have the potential to become sectoral leaders with some assistance. 

What Is SWAYAM?

This is where the role of the Government of India has been massive. From the age-old Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to more recent introductions like the National Education Policy (NEP) and SWAYAM, the Indian government has been influential in introducing numerous missions that have driven education among the country’s tribal communities, who incidentally make up approximately 10% of its total population. In the case of SWAYAM, the introduction has not been exclusively for tribal communities, but its aspects have made it largely accessible to the diverse tribal communities across the country, along with other marginalised societies. 

Study Webs of Active-learning for Young Aspiring Minds, abbreviated as SWAYAM, focuses on offering free online education from K12 to postgraduate levels, reducing the digital divide and skills-based education provided by educationists from IITs, IIMs, UGC and others. It also focuses on skills-based education in over 171 courses that go beyond technology, and into Law, Management, Social Sciences, and Engineering — the ideal mix for driving the development of tribal talents in the long term. 

The technological and sociological development in the 21st century has been massive and highlighted the importance of creating accessible, equitable, quality education to drive the country’s requirements in the new age. These requirements led the Indian government to introduce SWAYAM, focusing on talents from underserved communities by assisting them with free online education. 

Tribal communities, who often reside in remote regions and have little means of quality education, were favourably impacted in this introduction. The platform has so far witnessed over 4 crore enrollments, and while particular data on the participation of Tribal students cannot be verified due to lack of publicly available statistics, the ground reality has been massively helpful for tribal talents to gain era-appropriate education and knowledge.

What sets SWAYAM apart is far beyond its immediate impact on tribal education in India. Talents know no bounds, and the introduction of SWAYAM has been a revelation for its accessibility into the sphere of premium education. With the presence of faculties from the top educational institutes in India, talents from marginalized societies receive direct exposure to top-tier education, and with the nine national coordinators in the likes of NPTEL, AICTE, UGC and others overseeing the course development and delivery, they receive the opportunity to position themselves as trained professionals from any other premier institutions. 

Furthermore, with SWAYAM focusing on requirement-based education that constitutes the demands of the present-day workforce, it essentially creates a supply chain of trained professionals to top corporations, offering a mutually beneficial arrangement for Indian businesses and marginalised societies, including tribal communities.

Supplementing Education Among Tribal Communities

While SWAYAM is focused on the development of era-appropriate education among all marginalised societies, it extends a special olive branch to tribal communities at an important time. Recent statistics from prominent sources find that the tribal literacy rate stood at 72% in 2022, as compared to 59% revealed in the 2011 census. However, only 12% of the urban tribal population enrol in higher studies, compared to 2% of tribal talents from rural areas. This means that despite being literate, only a fraction of the tribal talents pursue higher education, an aspect that is essentially being addressed by the introduction of SWAYAM.

These facts and figures are also proportionate to how accessible higher education is in India. For many, higher education, i.e. graduation and onwards, requires significant wealth, something that is often not affordable for tribal families. At the same time, SWAYAM offers free education and training, which are some of the most important facets of attracting students in India. Divided into four pillars of learning — video lectures, special reading materials, self-assessment tests and group discussions — it essentially integrates an advanced mode of learning that is often comparable to the best international standards, assisting talents from marginalised societies to integrate themselves into the modern workforce.

Digital To Become Predominant

As digital mediums are becoming the preferred mode of learning gradually, the time will soon arrive when it becomes the predominant method of learning for tribal communities as well. Presently, India has 55.3% internet penetration, highlighting the scope of growth in the coming years, when education and internet penetration will grow simultaneously. 

Furthermore, leading educationists estimate that with the world moving towards a skill-based education strategy, tribal education will also witness a significant shift and more talents will join the threshold of higher education. This will also provide a considerable boost to India’s long-term vision, as untapped tribal talents have the potential to become leaders who will contribute towards the country’s sustained growth, and will also create a specific model for tribal development in the world.

(The author is the Founder and CEO of GUVI Geek Networks)

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