When schools reopened after summer vacation on Wednesday, around 25 girls attending school from the government-run Sathya Ammaiyar Memorial Home for Destitute Children here were left stranded since morning as the home denied them accommodation.
The girls, along with their mothers or guardians, were made to wait outside the home till late in the afternoon even as senior officials from Social Defence department, which runs the home, and District Child Protection Unit were busy organising an awareness campaign on child rights in Mattuthavani bus stand.
Officials defended the decision by stating that they could accommodate only 35 children, as opposed to around 115 children staying till last academic year, to comply with an order issued late last year by Madurai Bench of Madras High Court asking officials to ensure that homes did not accommodate children beyond their infrastructural capacity.
Explaining that the children were put in the home on the basis of their socio-economic status, their mothers, most of whom are single and working for daily wages, said that they might be forced to stop their children’s education if they did not get accommodation in the home.
Acknowledging that they were informed of the situation a few months back, they, however, blamed the officials for not making efforts to ensure feasible alternative arrangements so that the girls could continue schooling in Kakkai Padiniyar Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School, where all of them study.
V. Alagulakshmi from M. Subbulapuram, a single mother working in a cracker unit in Sivakasi, said that she dropped her daughter at the home a few years back as she could not spend on her education.
Pointing out that her daughter V. Sridevi studying Class 9, had won medals at the State-level in athletics, she said, “She is good in academics also and she likes the school. If shifted, she may lose motivation.”
M. Meenakshi, another single mother from Sembur near Melur, said that there were safety issues in the village as well. “There are only two bus services. The children have to walk three kilometres to reach the school in Therkkutheru village, where we face hostility from dominant castes,” she said.
P. Mallika, mother of another girl, said that they found Sathya Ammaiyar Memorial Home for Destitute Children, which accommodates only girls, to be safe. “She can walk to the school from here,” she said.
S. Selvagomathy, a lawyer and activist in Madurai, who intervened in the issue, blamed the district administration for jeopardising the education of girl children. “They knew the situation last year. With a sprawling space available for the home, why did they not improve the infrastructure,” she asked.
The girls later approached Collector K. Veera Raghava Rao, who summoned S. Dhanasekara Pandian, Deputy Director (Social Defence) and District Child Protection Officer M. Viviliyaraja to his office and instructed them to ensure alternative accommodation for the girls.
Speaking to the media, Mr. Rao said that since improving the infrastructure at the home could not happen immediately, the girls would be provided accommodation in other homes.
“Many of them seem to be from far flung villages of the district. We will try to ensure accommodation for them in the city so that they can continue in the present school. If not, we will find accommodation near their native places,” he said.
