Discrimination Is Not Okay! - Sharanya Naik

"While working at the Indian Express, I realized that this is not my calling. I wanted to use my journalism skills to write about the struggles and lives of those who have been pushed to the margins of our society.

I shifted to my home and decided to work among the Adivasi communities of Malkangiri, Koraput and Rayagada to learn from them about their lives. Usually, we perceive them to be unwelcoming, but once you truly get to know them and can win their trust, you realize how loving they are. 

During my initial years, I got to know that they were waging on an everyday basis just to live a life with dignity and freedom from all forms of oppression. I realized with great pain that they have been violated so badly by every non-Adivasi society that interacts with them that they have become distrusting of the state and society around them. They believed that the police or any other State actors, was meant for the people of the urban areas only and not for them. 

During all these years of being a part of them, I, personally, went through a lot of change. They helped me deschool myself and live a life that was more fulfilling than anything I had lived before, close to nature. They made me unlearn everything that I had learnt and gave me a new perspective towards life. I am more at peace with myself now and my heart is smiling because of the acceptance that they gave me and the trust I could gain of them.

My next goal is to work among the Adivasi youth groups. For all these years, I have been majorly working with the elders. But, now, I want to shift my focus towards the youngsters. They are the most miseducated now because of their access to modern society which has taught them to 'hate' their own people and their ways of life. Coming from an already racially discriminated society, their confidence gets a blow when they face everyday abuses from their own non-Adivasi peers who refer to them as 'illiterate', 'backward', 'primitive', etc. I hope that one day I am able to make this world a better place for them to live in, without facing any naming and shaming of any kind." - Sharanya Naik.