Tsunami Files #13: Rising Above Caste

Diviabarity looks like many other teenagers- bright, curious, engaged with her friends and her studies. Diviabarity is a Dalit, known traditionally in the Indian scheduled caste system as Untouchable. While the lot of Dalits is slowly improving, life can still be very difficult for members of this caste.

Diviabarity does not think about her caste as she talks about her future. This 12^th standard (12^th grade) student is excited at the computer skills she has learned from teachers supplied to her village by PWRDF partner OfERR (the Organization for Eelam Refugee Rehabilitation). Having finished her computer courses and received her results in an Excel spreadshee she is looking forward to studying computer engineering towards a career in computers and commerce.

She is one of 13 students who graduated from the OfERR-funded computer program last fall. The students want to learn more computer skills: Photoshop, internet use, powerpoint. They are limited by a lack of computers and internet access in their village. “We will definitely share what we have learned with others in our village, if you can give us a computer,” Diviabarity said.

Thanks to the skills and confidence she has gained from OfERR’s teachers, Diviabarity will not be held back by her past, her eyes are set firmly on the future, and her future looks bright!