The Ministry of Tribal Affairs has awarded the title of ‘Centre of Excellence in Tribal Empowerment through Digital Inclusion (CoE-TEDI)’ to Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for its work in uplifting tribal populations in the fields of education, health and e-literacy.
Dr. Prema Nedungadi, Director, Amrita Center for Research in Analytics & Technologies for Education, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, said, “Amrita is honoured to have been given this distinction by the Tribal Ministry. Our immediate plans are to understand baseline data and the impact of technology in areas such as digital literacy, oral-contraceptive use, oral hygiene, micronutrient deficiencies, digital safety, antenatal-health monitoring, and vaccination, as well as with our Adolescent Ambassadors for Awareness programme. We have also already completed awareness training in the dangers of substance abuse to 1,000 tribal students.”
Dr. Nedungadi added, “We are presently focussing to work in the tribal areas of Odisha, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.”
Dr. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, said, “It is an honour to receive this recognition from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs. Chancellor Mata Amritanandamayi Devi’s vision and service to the most impoverished remote and rural areas of the country has paved the way for this. We expect this multi-disciplinary collaboration to impact more than 9,000 beneficiaries in the next few years at the grassroots level, and culminate in policy changes at the highest level.”
In October 2018, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Chancellor, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi and the Minister of Tribal Affairs, Jual Oram, distributed certificates in e-literacy to 1,000 tribal children who had undergone e-literacy training by Amrita.