The Hindu : Front Page : Giving a life to prisoners’ children

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Saturday, Aug 04, 2007
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Giving a life to prisoners’ children

Anasuya Menon

More than 15 per cent of students in the Govt. Girls HSS, Asokapuram, are children of prisoners
The school is a blessing for children of orphanages and charity homes

COIMBATORE: The Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Asokapuram, may appear just as any other ordinary Government school on the outside. But within its classrooms are students fighting hard to redeem a childhood they had lost to trauma and misery.

More than 15 per cent of the students studying in the school are children of prisoners. “Either both the parents are imprisoned, or one of them is in jail and the other has no means of looking after the child,” says S. Saradamani, the headmistress.

Being amidst a cluster of orphanages and charity homes for children and the youth, the school is a blessing for the inmates of these homes. Its doors are always open to the children from these care homes who might otherwise never get an opportunity to continue their education. While most schools hesitate to admit such children, this one is ready to welcome them.

Honest effort

“Though some of the students have still not been able to come to terms with the tragedies they have had to experience, most of them make an honest effort to overcome the situation,” Ms.Saradamani says. “They want to stand on their own feet,” she adds.

The school gives these students permission to meet their parents once a month. Some of their parents are in prisons in Chennai and Vellore and some in Coimbatore. But, once within the school premises, they are treated just like any other normal student. They are never discriminated against, the headmistress asserts.The cent percent results in the Class X State board examinations also speak volumes for the encouraging school atmosphere. “The children put in their hearts into the lessons despite all the adversities they have had to face,” she adds. Apart from children of prisoners, the school has a sizeable number of orphaned children, also sent from the orphanages around.

Even while the school does not expect any help from the organisations sending the children, the Rotary Club of Coimbatore has volunteered to extend help to the students by providing them with free school uniforms, books, and stationery. The noon meal is provided at the school. The other students in the school hail from very poor families.

They come from villages such as Sengalipalayam, Idigarai, Vattamalaipalayam and Thudiyalur, in and around Asokapuram.

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