Soumitra Mandal, 33, better known as the “Oxygen Man of the Sunderbans” for delivering life-saving oxygen cylinders during the Covid-19 pandemic, has launched a digital mission to empower women in the remote Bali island of Gosaba in the Sunderbans.
Mandal has set up a free computer learning centre exclusively for girls aged between eight and 18 to make them digitally literate and self-reliant in a region often marred by poverty, child marriage, human trafficking and school dropouts.
The new centre, launched earlier this year, has already enrolled 60 students who attend classes in three batches, three days a week, using four desktop computers.
“More PCs are required,” said Mandal, who also teaches at a non-government primary school on the island and holds an honours degree in geography. “But this is a start.”
Mandal, who in 2023 conferred with The Telegraph Education Foundation honour and also earned several accolades and awards as recognition of his courageous work during Covid, invested the entire cash awards to build up a free coaching centre in 2023 titled “Nona Dwiper Pathsala”, on a five-cottah land donated by his father Tarak Mandal, a textile mill worker in Calcutta.
The latest initiative is an extension of his earlier effort, which was the setting up of a free coaching centre for girls from classes V to XII on Bali Island, known as “Nona Dwiper Pathsala.” However, Mandal in time realised that only studies was not enough, youngsters must know how to use computers and Internet in this day and age.
The computer learning centre was made possible with the support of several generous donors, including Susanta Kumar Hazra, founder and managing director of Glukem Biocare Private Limited in Hyderabad, and his friend Debangshu Pal, along with US-based doctor and scientist Dipankar Mukhopadhyay.
Hazra donated ₹ 2 lakh under the company’s CSR programme, while Mukhopadhyay contributed ₹ 85,000 to the project.
“I have arranged a space for girls whose parents can’t afford the cost of basic education, where learning computers is a nightmare,” Mandal said.
“I am lucky that good Samaritans like Susanta Hazra, Debangshu Pal and Dipankar Mukhopadhyay who came forward to help me materialise my dream, apart from our many friends and well-wishers,” he added.
To run the computer learning centre, Mandal set up an organisation, “Ferrywala”, through which he also provides scholarships to deserving girls to help them pursue their goals.
A local woman, Sangeeta Mondal, has been recruited on a modest honorarium to help impart computer education to the island students.
For gaining admission to the computer centre, Mandal has set four unique conditions: the girls must pledge not to marry early, must fight against child marriage, must take responsibility for the organisation, and must abstain from any form of substance abuse.
When asked why his initiative targets girls specifically, Mandal explained: “In an area dominated by harsh nature and hasher poverty, where employment opportunities are scarce, girl students often become the first victims of their family’s financial hardship. Many are first-generation learners who drop out due to a lack of guidance at home. I wanted to provide a support system for them so that they don’t stop studying.”
A mother whose daughter now attends the centre said she could have never imagined that her child would “sit in front of the computer one day”.