For close to the next three months nearly 30,000 select students of the Telangana Social Welfare and Tribal Welfare Residential Educational Institutions will be taking part in a variety of extra-curricular activities in sports, martial arts, fine arts, literary events and so at 78 venues across the State in four phases from Thursday.
‘Summer Samurai – 2017’ this year will see some 500 girls trained in martial arts for the first time and they will in turn teach the same to their fellow girl students in their respective schools in a major move to empower them.
Minister for Scheduled Caste Development Department G. Jagadishwar Reddy declared the annual camps open at the Secretariat in the presence of Special Chief Secretary Ajay Mishra, TSWREIS Secretary R.S. Praveen Kumar and others.
Good exposure
Mr. Kumar, while thanking the Government for the generous support in organising the camps, pointed out that these children were in the danger of being forced to work in agricultural fields or factories and the girls would have been married if they were to be at home for the summer vacation due to poverty and rural background.
The Social Welfare and Tribal Welfare Institutions are running these camps where apart from the usual activities, children will practice yoga and meditation, take part cultural programmes — music and dance, sailing, watch world cinema, participate in quiz, debate and get introduced to varied careers, among others.
“We are re-engineering the identity of marginalized children by pulling them out from a sense of despondency and inferiority complex through our camps,” said Dr. Kumar. Over the last few years, there has been tremendous response and all around appreciation for the camp activities. The camps will go on till June 16.
