As many as 25 students, all aged between nine and 14 years, are studying at a special school at Annur. Their parents are labourers from Maharashtra and are employed here.
Another special centre at Thondamuthur has 35 students, who are all from Assam. Their parents work at the arecanut farms. They come to Coimbatore only for some months in a year, when the parents will get jobs in the farms. In an effort to give basic education to the children of migrant (from other States) workers, when they are in Coimbatore, the National Child Labour project has started centres at Annur, Thondamuthur, and Thamaraikulam in the district.
Children of migrant workers usually do not go to school though their parents are employed at industries and farms here. This includes workers employed at brick kilns in Dharapuram and knitwear units in Tirupur. Coimbatore and Tirupur districts have 31 special centres run by NCLP for rehabilitation of rescued child workers. About 350 students in these centres are children of workers who are from other States. The children are from seven States, including Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, West Bengal, and Bihar.
The children from Assam will be here till March or April. They go to another State after that and come back to Coimbatore when their parents will get jobs at the farms. They are now into the second year at the special centre and can understand Tamil. Teachers who can speak to the children in Hindi are employed in some of these special centres. The students will get monthly stipend as other rehabilitated child workers. “We are opening bank accounts for these children so that the benefits from the Central Government are credited to their account directly. The NCLP gives an authorisation letter as many of them do not have any identity document,” said an official of NCLP here.
In a move to educate children of workers from other States, the NCLP is identifying areas where there are more number of migrant workers. Awareness among parents needs to improve on sending these children to the special centres. Industries that employ these workers should talk to them or help the workers enrol the children in the schools or special centres nearby, he added.
