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BY LISA MILLS, PH.D.<\/p>\n
A non-governmental organization (NGO) that fights caste discrimination with education is the subject of a new documentary directed by Lisa Mills, Ph.D., associate professor of film in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media.\u00a0 The NGO, Movement for Scavenger Community (MSC), was founded by Vimal Kumar, a doctoral candidate at the Tata Institute for Social Sciences in Mumbai.\u00a0 Mills and Kumar met in 2018 at a conference, and Kumar invited Mills to visit India to examine four educational resource centers run by MSC.\u00a0 In late April of 2019, Mills and two UCF graduate students, Kevin Garcia and Kayla Beadle, traveled to India to film Kumar\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis will be my fifteenth documentary, and it was definitely one of the most challenging to shoot,\u201d said Mills.\u00a0 \u201cBut I couldn\u2019t resist telling Mr. Kumar\u2019s story.\u00a0 It was the experience of a lifetime for me (and the students).\u00a0 The sounds and images my students captured are at times beautiful, at other times heart-wrenching.\u00a0 I want this film to capture the essence of education as a human right and a key component of social justice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mills and her film team traveled in taxis, trains and ferries for three weeks over hundreds of miles to film MSC education centers in the so-called \u201csweeper communities\u201d of Ladwa, Solan, Guwahati, and Barrackpore.\u00a0 They captured footage of children rushing into the centers every afternoon for academic and social guidance designed to help them achieve excellence in school and strive for a college degree. \u00a0But there was also evidence of discrimination in slums where the children live.\u00a0 In Guwahati\u2019s sweeper community, 25 families share one spigot for running water.\u00a0 They also share one toilet.<\/p>\n
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Kumar is a Dalit, born into the \u201cuntouchable\u201d caste, and a self-described \u201cson of a sweeper.\u201d Although the caste system was outlawed in India decades ago, many Dalits still face cultural, social and economic discrimination.\u00a0 Determined to overcome this fate, by age 16 Kumar recruited members of his cricket team to tutor students in his hometown of Ladwa.\u00a0 Mills\u2019 documentary will tell the story of how he formed MSC as a gateway to help other Dalits rise above their caste through higher education.\u00a0 It will also show some of the challenges he faces, like the sudden takeover of one MSC center by a political party for use as a campaign office during India\u2019s recent elections.\u00a0 As a result of the takeover, the center\u2019s library and classroom were destroyed.<\/p>\n
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