Odisha teen selected for Malala day event in US

A 17-year-old tribal student from a private Odisha institute has been selected by the United Nations to participate in the July 12 "Malala Day" youth session at the UN headquarters in New York, the institute said Saturday.

Laxman Hembram, the tribal student of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS), will be participating as the youth leader representative from India, a KISS spokeswoman told IANS.

Laxman hails from a poor Santhal tribal family of Mayurbhanj district in the state. His father works in a factory and his mother is a housewife.

He has been studying at KISS since 2006 and has now successfully passed his Class 12 (+2) science examinations. He intends to study further and become an engineer, she said.

He is also an English access programme alumnus, and has successfully undergone the youth leadership programme of the US Department of State.

In the past, he had the opportunity to travel to Seoul, South Korea, to present a paper on Climate Change under the United Nations Environment Programme.

The 16th birthday of Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai is being celebrated as "Malala Day" across the Globe July 11-12, 2013.

Malala was shot in the head Oct 9, 2012, after she became a spokesperson for girls' education and boldly opposed the Taliban's moves to ban girls from schools. She underwent treatment in the UK, and continues to live there after her father was appointed to a diplomatic post at Pakistan's consulate in Birmingham, which he can hold for up to five years.

The KISS spokesperson said that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon would be among the leaders addressing the youth at Malala Day celebrations.

Located in Bhubaneswar, KISS is home to more than 20,000 tribal children who receive free education from kindergarten (KG) to post-graduate (PG) level and vocational training.