Till very recently, K. Sandhya would wake up early to help her parents in the fields and do housework. She would then prepare for a half-hour walk to her school in Aayalur near Sevvapet.
She no longer has to endure the ordeal of long walks as she now has a bicycle.
On Tamil New Year’s Day, a group of Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) students donated unused bicycles to needy students in nine villages, including Veppampattu near Tiruvallur.
“There are not enough bus services from my village, Koyambakkam, to Aayalur. So, I walk to school along with two friends. Sometimes, I reach school late as I get tired. The cycle rides have saved much time,” says Sandhya, a class VII student of Tiruvallur Panchayat Union Middle School. R. Arun, her classmate is also glad he will now find more time to play and study.
A total of 53 school students were given bicycles that were abandoned at IIT-M by alumni. A group of youngsters from IIT-M joined together to reach out to needy students through the ‘IViL-IIT for villages’ programme.
“We learnt that several school children dropped out because of lack of transport. We came up with an idea to identify abandoned bicycles on the campus and repair them with funds from various organisations. It was encouraging to see the excitement on the children’s faces after the bicycle were distributed,” said Bhanu Chander V., an MS research scholar at IIT-M.
The members of ‘IViL-IIT for villages’ also take classes and teach computer science in their spare time.
“We have now made posters intimating students who are completing their courses to donate their old bicycles, in order to reach out to more students,” says Bhanu Chander. Their next goal is to provide solar table lamps, which are being designed, to schools.
IIT-M students joined hands with Srinivasan Services Trust to identify school children in dire need of better transportation.
L. Natana Sabapathy, the trust’s community development officer, said: “Students help us with awareness meetings on sanitation and free classes. We plan to give more cycles in two months.”
