Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) to Set Up Centres in Other States and Bangladesh

The Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) which offers free education to 50,000 tribal Odisha students from kindergarten to post-graduation is planning to run similar centres in Bangladesh and other states. A KISS centre will also start functioning in Kolkata from next year, said its founder Achyuta Samanta. KISS has signed an agreement with a Kolkata-based NGO, and the NGO will run the centre for 1000 poor children in the metropolis from the 2020 academic session.

KISS has been declared a deemed to be university by the Union HRD ministry in August last year and is expected to start a centre near Ranchi from 2020. 28 acre of land has already been approved for the KISS campus by the Jharkhand cabinet. There is a KISS centre in Delhi for 600 street children, and it also has plans to open such centres in Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

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The institute is also planning to have two centres in Bangladesh, one for girls from class 1st-10th in Jessore and the other one for boys in Dhaka. The Jessore centre will be in partnership with an NGO, and the Dhaka one will be in partnership with a private university in Bangladesh, he added.

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KISS was started in Bhubaneswar in 1992-93 to lead tribals away from the Naxal influence in Odisha. It has 27,000 students and 23,000 alumni staying in its facilities as of now. It offers free food and lodging to poor tribal students and education. It also looks into the placement of students after completion of studies. The funds for running KISS come from the turnover of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT), the sale of products made by KISS students of vocational courses and employees’ contribution.