Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
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Online edition of India's National Newspaper Thursday, Dec 20, 2007 ePaper |
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Andhra Pradesh
Labour Officer’s efforts to make slum children literate bear fruit 
Children learning alphabet VISAKHAPATNAM: Child is the father of the man, goes the adage. In other words, a child’s future prospects largely depend upon his/her childhood. It is disquieting to note that a vast majority of children from poor families are denied the little joys of childhood like playing their favourite games and having fun like their counterparts from well-to-do families. Worse still, some poor children do not even have an opportunity to go to school. Thanks to the efforts of a Labour Officer, about 80 children between the ages of 5 to 14 years are learning the alphabet at a slum below the Rammurthy Panthulapeta flyover. They are the children of nomads who somehow had settled on the vacant land near the Railway Quarters about two decades ago. While the men go out to earn their daily bread as soothsayers or as petty vendors selling combs and beads, the women work as domestic help in the nearby households or do other odd jobs. With the average family income ranging from Rs.50 to Rs.150 a day, parents send their children to work at tea stalls, restaurants and as domestic servants to supplement the income. During the course of his routine inspections, Assistant Labour Officer (Circle III) G. Lakshmi Narasaiah chanced upon this slum about two years ago. He was moved by the plight of the children and visited the settlement for a few days to know the problems of the dwellers from close quarters. He came to know through a few parents that some of the slum children were denied admission by Government schools in the vicinity. It’s a different matter that most of the parents were averse to enrolling their children in school. The ALO pursued the matter with the Education Department and National Child Labour Project (NCLP) officials and when they didn’t respond properly, he wrote to the District Collector and apprised him of the problem. He even came out with an alternative by showing the officials an abandoned Railway Quarters to run the school. The roof of the old building was strengthened and the walls and doors given a fresh coat of paint. Thanks to the effort, at present 85 children are taking their first lessons at this school. While it would be unfair to compare the children of this ‘Alternative School’ with those of other regular schools, an interaction with them revealed that at least a few of them are enthusiastic about their education and even talk about ambitious careers. Marked improvement“In the beginning on seeing me, they used to run away. They are now able to write alphabets and sentences. Now they are coming to school regularly but at times they stay back at home for babysitting or on some other pretext”, says their teacher L. Usha. NGOs like Sri Satya Sai Seva Trust have provided uniforms to the children.
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