Around 80 km from Nashik city, in the Adivasi pada of Hiwali in Triambakeshwar Taluka, a feminist movement is brewing. Houses here are not identified by the names of the family patriarch, but a yellow-coloured tree forms the base to remove an age-old custom and displays the name of the girl child of the house prominently. And this is not just one house, but all of the total 30 houses in the village follow the same pattern one wall after another. 

Hiwali, has become a sort-of model village. Known for its extraordinary school where students can recite multiplication tables up to 970, know various sections of the Constitution down to pat and can solve the Rubik’s cube in a jiffy, Hiwali is creating a path of transformation, be it in the education system or the family system. All thanks to the lone teacher of the only school in the village, Keshav Gavit, who is leading from the front and the 215 residents of the village, are on board. The villagers belong to the Kokna and Mahadev Koli tribes. None of them however have a permanent job; they rely on farming and temporary employment to make a living.