Intorductory address of Mr Benjamin Paul Kaila. Delivered on February 06, 2005 by Vazra Sravani Kaila(9) in Telugu and Pratheek Adidela(13) in English.

Respected Chief Guest, guest of honor, donors present in the function and brothers and sisters who graced this occasion. I thank you all to be present in this function.

I would like to give you a brief introduction of Ambedkar Scholarships Project. Please bear with me for a few minutes.

For centuries together, dalits have been oppressed without basic human rights. But now, they are marching towards progress with greater speed. As we all know, this is all due to the selfless sacrifices of Dr Ambedkar. I believe that the majority of the people in this function have been someway or the other benefited by his services. His legacy is not just limited to Reservations but in all walks of life, if we examine carefully. So, in order to honor such a great visionary, we named this project as “Ambedkar Scholarships”.

“Ambedkar Scholarships” was started with just 2 scholarships in 2003 to help economically backward but bright students from dalit communities. When we advertised it in Guntur district edition of a newspaper in that year, we got just 14 applications. In 2004, with the help of concerned friends from all over the world, we were successful to get sponsorship for 23 such scholarships. So, we sent letters to 252 social welfare and government schools in Andhra Pradesh asking for applications from SSC passed students. The result was overwhelming. We got around 900 applications and most of them with good marks in SSC.

Currently, due to lack of resources, we have decided to award these scholarships to SSC passed students from AP only, when they are entering the most challenging stage of their life, college education. This is the stage where all the gates of learning open to them – professionally or otherwise. But our intention is to introduce such scholarships at all stages of education all over India.

“VIDYA LENI VADU VINTHA PASUVU”, goes a telugu proverb. It means "A person without education is a strange animal". Education is needed for human well being. Good and right education is what is needed to realize one’s full potential. Most of the sponsors and I are fortunate to be in countries like US only due to our right education at the right time. Most of us came from very simple families with lack of all sorts of resources. Though we came from remote villages with no resources, lived in huts with no electric fans, studied in front of kerosene lamps, walked several miles everyday to attend school in rain or shine, attended schools with no doors or facilities, lived among the people with no or little educational background, had friendships with children not interested in education, had no guidance to improve ourselves, experienced all kinds of discrimination at school and village; we are what we are only due to education. So, we want to promote education as a weapon to overcome all our miseries. We believe that if right education is given to a person, you give everything to him/her.

When we closely examine the marks obtained by our students, it is surprising to note that many of them did very well in SSC despite several odds they face every day as children of dalits. One can imagine the progress they may make if proper resources and guidance is given. So far, we are condemned with a baseless accusation “Dalits are meritless”. What we lack is not Merit but opportunities, guidance, encouragement and awareness. It is true that they can bypass anyone if proper environment is provided.

It is most important for every dalit student to know about Dr Ambedkar and his purposeful life. Dr Ambedkar should be a hero to our children, not a film star or cricketer. He had grown himself to Himalayan heights in character, intelligence, determination, self respect and sacrifice just because of his own will power and hard work. Born in a poor dalit family, he experienced discrimination as a child, educated himself with determination, studied in western countries, fought for human rights for dalits and other marginalized sections throughout his life, occupied high positions of power, became the architect of Indian constitution, obtained reservations for dalits to safeguard their welfare, established schools and colleges, encouraged dalits to live with dignity, independence and self-respect, sacrificed his whole life for the welfare of his people. No critical student of Dr Ambedkar can stop helping others. Knowing such a giant intellectual is nothing but knowing ourselves. There is a great need to spread the ideology of Dr Ambedkar to our budding intelligent children.

Therefore, we are presenting Dr Ambedkar’s biography and other dalit related books to inculcate in them a taste for dalit related issues. Our mission will be a success if we can induce Ambedkar ideology in to at least one of these young minds. Our wish is that these children should read his life in depth, understand his philosophy, implement it in their lives, scale greater heights in life with prestige and power, and help others in need selflessly.

Now, giving an idea about this project and its purpose, we urge you to please come forward to help us to help our children if you can sponsor a scholarship or two. This project is running only on individual donations. If you want to help us, please let us know. We will name the scholarship as you wish. We run this project with complete transparency. All our donations and expenses are available on our website www.ambedkarscholarship.org for everyone to see. We assure you that every penny will be used in the most efficient way reducing the expenses as much as possible and giving as many scholarships as possible.

At the end, I would like to thank some of our brothers who are instrumental in the success of this project. Brother Devdas Adidela was an inspiration to start this project and helping me despite his busy schedule. Without brother Vijayavardhan Rao, it was impossible for me to complete this year’s work. He took great pains to send hundreds of letters, corresponding with several people, printing certificates and numerous other things. My brother Anand Paul too helped me. I also thank brother Katti Suvarna Raju for helping us to get the SSC merit list from Board of secondary Education. Without that, we wouldn’t be able to send letters to 252 schools.

My sincere thanks to all the sponsors of these scholarships, books, and the INSIGHT magazine. Everyone came forward with their generous money asking no questions and keeping trust on me. Without their help, I would not be able to give this many scholarships this year. Finally, my thanks to all those present here. Rest of the thanks giving, I will leave it for Vote of Thanks.

And at last, my thanks to my dear Sravani and my dear Pratheek for reading my message to you all.

With regards,

Benjamin Paul Kaila