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There is only one primary school, in Pisayta village, which caters to the children of some 25 villages in a remote area in Vadodara District, Gujarat. It is difficult for tribal children from the interior villages to travel there to school every day.

Five years ago, Vechan Bhil, a tribal farmer living in Pisayta, came up with a solution. He decided to share his house with the children, and provide free food and tuitions, too.

Since the teachers at the school are often absent, a graduate from a neighbouring village comes to help the children, presently 55 in number, with schoolwork and homework, for free. Other villagers help too, giving what they can.

Vechan, though illiterate himself, has realised that education is the key to changing the lives of the tribals, and he is trying to ensure that their children get some education.

In a development that, activists say, sets precedence for other tribal villages, Mendha-Lekha and Marda in Gadchiroli district have become the first villages under the Forest Rights Act (2006) to get community ownership of the forests around them.

Maharashtra Governor S. C. Jamir handed over the Record of Rights to the villagers at a function in Gadchiroli on Tuesday.

The Record of Rights recognises the villagers' rights to manage their forest, water, and the right to forest produce. It gives them ownership of the surrounding forest and allows them to graze cattle there, as well as to collect and store minor forest produce, except timber.

Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, a well-known social activist and environmentalist, says that granting tribals their traditional rights," is the only way with which the union government can put an end to insurgency."