9 tribal students crack CLAT to win seats at national law schools

In an impressive feat, nine students from the various tribal communities in Wayanad district have cracked the Common Law Admission Test (CLAT) and would soon be joining in some of the leading law schools in the country.

It is probably a first in the country, that so many tribal students from the same district would be joining national law institutes in the same academic year.

This is also the success story of Niyama Gothram, a training project initiated by the Wayanad District Legal Services Authority. The students of the Kattunaika and Paniya tribes would now make it to the top law schools in the country when most students fail to make the cut.

Twenty-seven students from the residential school for the Scheduled Tribe communities were chosen to be trained for three months. Last year, one student who had trained under this program had secured admission at the National University of Advance Legal Studies (NUALS) in Kochi. This had inspired the students in the junior batch and were determined to work hard to crack one of the toughest entrance tests in the country.  M Mridula, RG Ayana, P Sreekutty, A Ammu, KK Anagha, MK Aditya, MR Athul, R Rahul and Divya Vijayan are the nine tribal students who have cleared CLAT. Meanwhile, the rest of the students who were part of the training program hope that they could join the various law colleges in the state after qualifying the Kerala Law Entrance Exam.

The training program is held under the leadership and mentoring of district judge A Harris, who is also the chairman of the District Legal Services Authority, and its secretary K Rajesh who is a sub-judge.

Classes were handled by Dr. Jayasankar from the Thiruvalla law campus of the Central University of Kerala; Dr. Kavitha, a professor of law at the Delhi Lloyd Law College; Prof Lowelman of Kozhikode Government Law College; and George Giri and Dr. Jasmine who are lawyers practising in the Supreme Court and social workers associated with the NGO called Increasing Diversity and Increasing Access.

The Integrated Tribal Development Project (ITDP) had provided the funding for the training project.

Wayanad District Collector Adeela Abdulla had instructed to ensure all the facilities for the students who have been chosen for the training program.

The officials hope that the project could be extended to other districts, if the same feat is repeated in the state law entrance test too. 

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