Alok Sagar – An Ex-IIT Professor Who Dedicated 32 Years For The Welfare Of Tribal Villages

What would you do after you get a degree from prestigious institution IIT and PhD from Houston?

For most of the people, it’s an opportunity for a better future to lead a settled life. And that’s a fact because you aren’t going to risk this opportunity for anything.

Well, there is someone who once been an IITian, IIT professor and even have PhD from Houston now pursuing the strangest jobs you could have ever imagined. He is not living in US and doesn’t even have big house and a lavishing salary. Besides he is not a saint. So, who is he???

Okay  it’s time to know about this gentleman. Alok Sagar is a learned man who went to IIT and Houston to pursue his studies and he also groomed EX RBI Governor Raghuram while teaching at IIT Delhi. But all these fancy degrees couldn’t keep him satisfied so he left his job.


He decided to serve the people living in remote tribal villages of Madhya Pradesh. He began working in Betul and Hoshangabad districts of Madhya Pradesh. The sole purpose of his stay was to work for tribals, look into their problems and help them solving those problems. Surprisingly, he spent the last 26 years of his life in remote village of Madhya Pradesh called Kochamu. Kochamu is known to have around 750 tribals and a primary School. This place still lacks the basic necessities like electricity and roads.

Alok Sagar have always been very optimistic about his decision to work for tribals. He believes people can actually serve this country by focussing on the grassroot level which is often neglected.

He stated:

“In India, people are facing so many problems, but people are busy proving their intelligence by showing their degrees rather than serving people”.

It’s not like he didn’t have to face any kind obstacles while serving the tribals. While serving the tribals he have always maintained a low profile but one day he became a subject of suspicion. There was district elections going on in Betul


When local authorities found him suspicious and asked him to leave.But Ashok didn’t have to be afraid of anything as he wasn’t​doing anything wrong. He revealed his long list of qualifications which was later verified and confirmed by district confirmation. Once Ashok’s qualifications were confirmed, district administration had no option except surprise at what they just confirmed.

Alok Sagar totally transformed his life from a white-collar man to a tribal man. He doesn’t have shirts but 3 sets of kurtas; he doesn’t have a Car but a cycle. Unlike most of his fellow IITians he spent his entire day collecting and distributing seeds to the tribal people. He has a language proficiency of many different tribal languages and dialects used by tribals.

Alok Sagar is associated with Shramik Adiwasi Sangathan which works for the upliftment and betterment of the tribals