The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) is an institute where tribal students in Odisha are provided with free education from kindergarten to post graduation. It notified on Sunday that they will be establishing more KISS centers in other states and Bangladesh.
It was also notified by the founder Achyuta Samanta that another center will be opened in Kolkata from next year.
They have come to an agreement with the Kolkata based NGO to run their another center for 1000 poor children in the metropolis from the academic session of 2020, he said.
The KISS, being declared as the Deemed to be University by the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, will establish another center in Ranchi in Jharkhand from 2020.
After being notified by KISS, Jharkhand approved a land of 28 acres of land for KISS campus, Samanta, a Rajya Sabha member from the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said.
He also confirmed that the KISS also has plans to open centers in Bihar and Chattisgarh along with an already built center for 600 street children in Delhi.
He also expressed their concern over the waiting for the approval by the Bihar government, after meeting Chief Minister Nitish Kumar twice.
The institute also has plans to start two KISS centers in Bangladesh.
One will come up for girls of class 1 to 10 in Jessore and another for boys at Dhaka, he added.
Founded in Bhubaneswar in 1992-93, the KISS has 27,000 students and 23,000 of its alumni stay in its facilities.
“The KISS provides poor tribal students free food, lodging, and education from KG to PG. We also provide them jobs after completion of education,” Samanta said.
When asked about the source of funds, he replied that the source is mainly through Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), and contribution from employees, the sale of products made by KISS students of vocational courses and donation.