Migrant girl's journey now part of Kerala's school curriculum
A small tiled house in Muppathadam, near Eloor in Ernakulam, has been receiving many visitors in recent days. People are coming to meet and congratulate Dharaksha Parveen, a young woman originally from Bihar, whose life story has now found its way into the school curriculum.
Twelve years ago, Dharaksha moved from Bihar to Kerala.
Now, a memoir in the form of a letter to a friend—where she recalls her childhood in Bihar and how her life changed after moving to Kerala—has been included in the new textbook for Class VI in Kerala.
The memoir she wrote in Malayalam, Thozhilinte Ruchi, Bhashayudeyum (which translates to The Taste of Labour and Language), recalls how her impoverished family, with no resources or proper educational infrastructure in their native village in Darbhanga, rebuilt their lives after arriving in Kerala. It also highlights how the Kerala government's special education programme Roshni, designed for the children of migrant labourers, helped her achieve her dream.
'In Bihar, I studied up to Class III. The school had no benches, desks, or even enough teachers. When we came to Kerala, I joined Class IV here. We had everything we needed—good furniture, books, and teachers. My siblings also joined school here,' an excited Dharaksha said.
Dharaksha soon began learning Malayalam and even tutored the children of migrant labourers in government schools under the Roshni programme.
'The children face difficulties with the language when they join schools here, so I helped them using my knowledge of Hindi and my basic understanding of Bengali and Oriya,' Dharaksha said.
Her father, Muhammed Sameer, works at a footwear manufacturing company in Ernakulam. From a young age, Dharaksha was eager to earn something on her own. She has a passion for fashion design and enrolled in an ITI course immediately after completing her 10th standard.
'I wanted to study fashion design as I've always been passionate about creating clothes. Now I'm working in that field and also pursuing a degree in Hindi language through distance education from Indira Gandhi National Open University,' she said.
Her mother, Rajiya Khath, is a housewife. Her brothers Mohammed Sameer studies at MES College, Marampilly, and Mohammed Adil is a Plus Two student at GHSS, Muppathadam.
At a recent function in Kochi, where Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan was also present, Dharaksha spoke about how the State's strong public education system in Kerala had helped her receive a good education.
She also requested the Chief Minister to extend the Roshni scheme to all government schools across the State. 'I was told that the Chief Minister has agreed to my suggestion to extend the scheme to all schools. I am yet to receive confirmation,' Dharaksha said.
Her biggest dream is to own a house in Kerala, and she is now working hard to make that dream a reality. 'I love this State and consider my arrival here the greatest stroke of luck in my life. Everyone here has supported and encouraged me,' Dharaksha said.
It was a teacher from Palakkad who, after hearing Dharaksha's story, encouraged her to write down her experiences. Her account was later selected by the State government's textbook committee to be included in the curriculum.
Director General of Education Shanavas S, said Dharaksha's memoir was the best representation of the State Education department's efforts to bring the children of guest workers into the mainstream. This has been achieved by offering training in Malayalam, while also using facilitators to help the children continue learning their languages through the Roshni project.
'We had recommended Dharaksha's writing to the curriculum committee of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) and they acknowledged that the girl's writing in Malayalam was of high quality and a genuine account of the benefits of the Roshni scheme. So, they decided to include it in Class VI curriculum from this academic year,' Mr. Shanavas said.
He added that, based on the girl's request, the government has taken steps to extend the Roshni project to all government schools as well.
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Photo: Social media Songs associated with Holi and seasonal changes ( phag, jogira, purvi ), songs sung at birth ( sohar ), marriage ( nachari ) and mourning ( samadaun ) find a place through incorporation of the oral traditions within the narrative of village life in Maryganj. The festival of Holi becomes a site for the inversion of the sociopolitical order through songs ( jogira ) which are used to point to the hypocrisy of the purity – pollution associated with the caste hierarchy. A Brahmin accepting water or food from a person deemed to be 'low-caste' is seen as an instance of 'pollution' but a lower-caste woman's sexuality is seen as something he can access easily with acceptance under the Brahmanical ideological structure. 'Arey ho budbak babhbna, arey ho budbak babhna ….jolaha dhuniya teli telaniya ke piye na chhual paniya. Chumma leve mei jaat nahi re jaye!' 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The everyday functions of a caste-based order are made explicit through the focus on commensality. Brahmins refused to eat in a public feast unless separate arrangements were made for them; the Rajputs and Kayasthas would not eat in the same row as the Yadavs, who in turn would refuse to eat with Dhanuks. Ambedkar's conception of graded inequality as characteristic of the caste system in India, where the castes exploited by the 'upper' castes seek to dominate those placed lower than them in the caste hierarchy, is notable. Renu was a key figure in the Aanchalik (regionalist) literary movement, which emphasised local landscapes, dialects, and everyday life. His use of social realism allows him to document not just hardship, but also community resilience, folk wisdom, and indigenous forms of resistance. The work highlights that folk songs, idioms, festivals, and oral traditions are not decorative – they are central to the community's survival and moral compass. These cultural elements act as tools of resistance to cultural erasure and state-imposed modernisation. The portrayal of this village is important as it does not resort to painting a quaint, serene countryside based on difference, distance or nostalgia. Influenced in large part by Gandhi, the imagination of the Indian village during the nationalist struggle, came to be seen as the repository of traditional Indian social life. In Gandhi's view, village life embodied the very essence of India, while the emergence of modern urban centres symbolised Western dominance and colonial control. As a result, he believed that true swaraj, or self-rule, could only be achieved by revitalising India's village communities and restoring their civilisational strength. What Gandhi highlighted as the 'essence of civilisation' is primarily what Ambedkar critiqued about the village society – 'The Hindu society insists on the segregation of the untouchables. The Hindu will not live in the quarters of the untouchables and will not allow the untouchables to live inside Hindu quarters… It is not a case of social separation, a mere stoppage of social intercourse for a temporary period. It is a case of blatant territorial segregation… every Hindu village has a ghetto..'. The village life came to be romanticised in novels as opposed to the hustle-bustle of 'town life'. Renu however doesn't characterise it as an unchanging, generalised character of rural India but infuses it with specifics which are useful in their insights and reminiscent of a village study. His characters are not idealised possessors of antique virtues or fundamental goodness. Renu does not stand with Gandhi's model of the Indian village as a singular cognitive unit, a republic of sorts but bares it as an entity divided along class, caste and gender lines with prejudices shaping the contours of different identities and the social formations. The villagers of Maryganj have the word Suraaj i.e. Swaraj on the tip of their tongues – Gandhi ji has promised so, he will bring it about. The phenomenon of Gandhi, something which the historian Shahid Amin has written extensively about, in the eyes of the 'subaltern' or non-elite in rural India can also be gauged in this novel. 'Gandhi mahatma' is evoked often, not only by Congressmen but by villagers who have heard of him through others. Renu questions the penetration of these values of the freedom struggle and whether the Congressmen were actually able to take their ideas to the 'masses' beyond words, concluding that ' suraaj' has not reached the minds of the nation's citizens. Or at least not in the manner the Mahatma would have thought of. However, in more ways than one, Renu, instead of glorifying Western-style progress or industrialisation, proposes a model of alternative modernity – one that respects rural wisdom, collective solidarity, and ecological harmony. This questions dominant notions of development and emancipation tied solely to urbanisation or capitalism. Renu's political experience helps him reshape the discourse of emancipation Renu's personal life and the politics he practiced cannot be divorced from his writing. An active participant in the 1942 Quit India Movement, he was jailed for the same. Having completed his matriculation from Nepal he also participated in the movement against monarchy and for the establishment of democracy in the country. In his essay titled 'The role of the Writer in the making of the Nation' published in 1957, Renu wrote that being 'enslaved by the coloniser' was the main problem during the freedom struggle, and as an independent nation the main issue is that of building a nation. Modernity which was to bring about independent thinking and independent power to the individual has not happened even 10 years after independence. Thus his political experience helps him reshape the discourse of emancipation by primarily validating rural life and subaltern subjectivity with a subterranean yearning demanding a challenge to caste and class oppression. And the text also offers a bottom-up vision of freedom tied to social justice and cultural authenticity. A testimony of Renu's conviction was further seen during the Emergency when he wrote to the President returning his Padma shri, particularly after the violence meted out to the protests led by Jayaprakash Narayan (JP). In his letter Renu strongly protested saying 'How long will the government, of which you are the President, continue to try to suppress the will of the people using violence and state repression? In such a situation, this honour of 'Padma Shri' has become ' Paap shri' (a sin) for me'. The novel's themes become particularly important when 76 years after Independence, the Chief Justice of 'modern' India publicly states his belief in and propagates to the nation, ayurveda and ayurvedic medicines. It necessitates questioning political propagation in the garb of 'personal choice' when religious superstition and lack of access to quality health services continues to impact everyday life of more than a billion in the country. When the everydayness of irrationality seeks to normalise harking back to ancient glory, of 'reclaiming' civilisational (reducing the Civilisation to 'Caste Hindu' values) – pillars of the state actively legitimising it, it increases the urgency to remember the tenets of independence and voices documented in the Maila Aanchal. In a letter to JP, Renu highlighted his dissonance with this 'free' country. He wrote – '…a few days ago someone said to me that there's a difference between the prisons of colonial India and that of free India. Well indeed, Purnea Jail can be an example of this 'independent' India of our present where even human beings have become animals. Maybe out of one thousand one hundred and twelve prisoners, even one person cannot be termed healthy. Maybe hell is like this… what is the difference between 1947 and 1972?' And what indeed is the difference between 1947, 1972 and 2025, as thousands of people remain as undertrial prisoners in different jails across the country. Many of these are young minds arrested for protesting against unequal citizenship laws and for demanding the freedom to be and the freedom to become across university campuses in India. In the novel, after the achievement of independence in 1947, the Adivasis of Santhal regions are disillusioned as they continue to grapple with local oppressors, and the state and its justice systems continue to be dominated by upper castes. The constitutional promise of justice appeared hollow when it remained structurally denied. The contradictions of unfreedoms in a 'free' nation continues to make this novel relevant. Stories exposing deeply embedded inequalities which persist even after independence In Maila Anchal, Renu critiques feudal oppression, caste discrimination, and bureaucratic apathy. His stories expose how deeply embedded inequalities persist even after independence, pointing out that political freedom did not automatically translate into social justice. Unlike didactic or revolutionary narratives, Maila Anchal doesn't offer a grand solution. It presents partial, fractured progress, emphasising that emancipation is slow, contested, and deeply contextual. Renu's writing, rooted in the reality of rural India, speaks directly to the need for social justice, making him an important voice in the literary canon of Indian writers committed to egalitarianism. His characters often embody the hope for a more just society, even if it is only reflected in small, personal victories. What we can borrow from Renu is a simple virtue called empathy. Renu's deep empathy for the marginalised and his understanding of the complexities of rural life reflect his belief in an egalitarian society. It is time for the Republic to stick to it with the necessary sense of urgency. The writer has an MA in modern history from Jawaharlal Nehru University and currently works with Oxford University Press. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
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