Adivasi poet Jacinta Kerketta rejects US AID-supported award in solidarity with Palestine

Renowned Adivasi poet, writer, and independent journalist Jacinta Kerketta has refused to accept the 2024 “Room to Read Young Author Award,” jointly awarded by US AID and Room to Read India Trust. The recognition was for her children’s poetry collection, Jirhul, but Kerketta rejected the honor in protest against Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, calling attention to the role of US arms manufacturers in the genocide.

Kerketta expressed her strong disapproval of receiving any award associated with US AID and Boeing, particularly while thousands of children continue to suffer in Palestine. She criticised the association of organizations promoting children’s education with arms companies, which, she said, contribute to the very destruction of children’s lives.

“I saw that Room to Read India Trust is also associated with [the company] Boeing for children’s education. How can the arms business and care for children continue simultaneously when the world of children is being destroyed by the same weapons?” The Wire quoted Kerketta as saying.

Aerospace giant Boeing, which has been involved with the Israeli military for 75 years, had partnered with Room to Read India Trust in an education initiative flagged off by former Union Minister Smriti Irani. This connection, Kerketta pointed out, symbolises a deeper contradiction between the promotion of education and the profits earned from weapons used in conflicts.

The Jirhul poetry collection, which focuses on flowers tied to the lives of Adivasi communities, was selected under the Children’s Book Creators’ Awards category. Although the award ceremony is set for October 7, there has been no public response from the organisers regarding her refusal.

Kerketta questioned the ethical responsibility of accepting such recognitions under the current global circumstances. “Books for children are important, but adults have not been able to save children – thousands of whom are being killed in Palestine,” she said.

Her poetry collection Jirhul, published by Jugnu Prakashan under the Iktara Trust, Bhopal, seeks to raise socio-political consciousness among children, drawing from the cultural richness of Adivasi life. “They were written to awaken social and political consciousness, especially at a time when children in the country are growing up reading only about roses and lotus,” she noted.

This is not the first time Kerketta has refused an award on principle. Last year, she declined an honor from the India Today Group, protesting the lack of respect shown to Adivasis in Manipur. Her current rejection of the Room to Read award also follows author Jhumpa Lahiri’s recent decision to turn down an award from New York’s Noguchi Museum, citing the firing of employees who wore keffiyeh scarves as a sign of solidarity with Palestine.

Jacinta Kerketta’s literary contributions include seven other books, such as Ishwar aur Bazar, Jacinta ki Diary, and Land of the Roots.