Bhubaneswar: Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was granted university status by the Ministry of Human Resource Development under De-Novo category Friday.
KISS Deemed University is supposed to be the first university in the world exclusively for tribal students and tribal studies, which is fully free and fully residential. Though Indira Gandhi National Tribal University has been established before, it enrolls students of all categories while KISS is exclusively for tribal students.
KISS has now planned to introduce seven departments for research on tribal studies. As before, students of KISS will continue to get residential education for free. Thanking Union HRD minister Prakash Javadekar, founder of KISS Achyuta Samanta said Javadekar has made history by deeming the university status to KISS.
Notably, KISS was founded by Samanta in 1992-93 at a rented building in Bhubaneswar with only 125 poor tribal students. It underwent massive growth with gradual increase in the student strength.
At present, student strength of KISS has touched 37,000 with 27,000 existing students and 10,000 graduated while 60% per cent of them are girls.
In addition to formal education from Class I to Postgraduate level, a wide range of vocational skill is imparted to the students. Besides implementing the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals in true sense, KISS has been able to bring about much-needed social changes in the tribal hinterland of Orissa and its neighbouring states by arresting spread of Maoist and Naxalite insurgency.
KISS, through its 37,000 students who come from as many families in different villages across the state, has played a crucial role in transforming tribal mindset and helping them join the mainstream society.
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