Indigenous (Santali) knowledge and community-based research: building research capacities in the Santal Parganas

 

At almost six million people, the Santals (largely found in eastern India) form the third-largest tribal group in the country. For many Santal youth, access to higher education is limited due to low K—12 educational attainment, poor economic status, and inadequate higher education institutions within the region. Yet Santal culture, language, and ways of life are a source of innovation in natural resource regeneration, ecological balance and sustainable living. This project aims to systematize this knowledge and make it available to students, researchers and practitioners in support of the socio-economic development and aspirations of the Santal people.

India’s National Education Policy mandates that teaching, research and service activities of colleges and universities be integrated through sustained and mutually beneficial community engagement. Socially responsible higher education is expected to support the achievement of SDG4, to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education” and provide local and contextual knowledge solutions for addressing socio-economic challenges at the grassroots level. This project will develop socially relevant, community-based research capacity and set up a knowledge portal to share systematized Indigenous knowledge that can be used by future researchers, both locally and globally.