Mittal Patel

Mittal Patel

Mittal Patel, a young journalism student in Gujarat University, joined the mainstream media to kick-start her career. In one of her interactions as a journalist, Mittal learnt about the constant struggles of the nomadic and de-notified tribes of Gujarat. As Mittal researched more, she learnt that four million people from these tribes live in Gujarat, with no formal record of their identities in the government system and without access to even the basic necessities of life. Their plight distressed Mittal and she decided to spin the wheels of change in their favour! Mittal quit her job to focus on improving the lives of nomadic tribes in Gujarat. For two long years, she determinedly worked alone to make in-roads into the lives of the shy and close-knit nomadic communities. As layers of their lives began to unfold, Mittal realized that their problems were plenty. The women here were often sexually abused, the children led a miserable life and there just was not enough space to live.Mittal’s biggest challenge was to bring the tribal people in to the mainstream society, so they could at least benefit from the various opportunities available to all registered Indian citizens. She set up Vicharta Samuday Samarthan Manch-an NGO, thus helping run tent-schools for children, lobbying actively with the local
government for land rights, and applying for voter ID cards for these tribes. Today, 20,000 people from the tribes have their own Voter ID cards and 5000 of them are gainfully employed. She believes this is just the beginning of her remarkable journey and that there is a long way ahead.
Mittalben, as she is fondly called, is a gold medalist in journalism and Winner of CNN-IBN’s real heroes award.
Quote- “My mission is to see that the tribes join the mainstream”