Author: Jose Kurian
Publication: The New Indian Express
Date: December 20, 2008
URL: http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=NGOs+%E2%80%98hijack%E2%80%99+tribal+kids+to+fill+orphanages&artid=j8uvNRXXEhI=&SectionID=1ZkF/jmWuSA=&MainSectionID=XT7e3Zkr/lw=&SectionName=X7s7i%7CxOZ5Y=&SEO=NGOs;%20orphanages;%20institutions;%20tribal%20kids;%20triba
It all boils down to making up the numbers.
Cashing in on the harrowing situation of tribal communities, NGOs mushrooming
in the district are on a massive hunt for tribal kids -- to fill their orphanages
and institutions.
A few norms and regulations are violated in
the bargain, but no matter. But why this frenzied 'rounding-up' of orphans
in farflung tribal hamlets? Simple. The NGOs just don't want to pass up a
heaven-sent chance to get their hands on the huge sums of funds from various
national and international agencies.
Take the plight of five children from Panthikkal
Adiya tribal settlement at Chekadi, a hamlet near Pulppalli. Though transfer
certificates (TCs) had been issued to four of them to 4th standard and the
fifth to 3rd standard from the alternative school at Thazhassery, the missionary
group based at Sulthan Bathery admitted them only in the 1st standard.
Violating all educational norms, the children
were admitted at the aided school, allegedly after fabricating documents,
though the TCs had been issued to a government school. In effect, Mahesh,
10, and Sabitha, 8, Chinchu, 9, Anju, 10, and Vinod, 10, were all 'hijacked'
to the institution, on the promise of free education and boarding.
"Though I gave them the TCs for admission
to Government LP School, Moolankavu, they've been admitted at a private aided
institution at Puthenkunnu," says Peter, the head-teacher of the alternative
school.
To Peter's dismay, he found, during a visit
to look up his former wards, their names missing from the Moolankavu school
register.
After a prolonged search, the children were
located at the Puthenkunnu school.
The headmaster at that school denied Peter
permission to see the children, but obliged on the intervention of SSA District
Programme Officer E P Mohandas and AEO Dominique Savio.
Peter told this website's newspaper on Thursday:
"Admitting them to the 1st standard not only amounts to denying their
educational rights but also tarnishes the alternative education system."
Small wonder, the children seemed a scared and confused lot when this website's
newspaper visited the school.
A few years ago, an NGO based at Pathanamthitta
recruited 52 children from 15 colonies through another agency. Except one,
all of them failed to complete schooling, it is learnt.
