Ramanathan from Velliankadu in Tirupur had no option but to stop studying and start working when he was studying Standard II. Along with two more children, he would cut cloth at home, earning ₹ 150 a day. He was rescued by the National Child Labour Project (NCLP), and enrolled in a special school at Tirupur.
This year, Ramanathan completed Plus-Two scoring 1050.
“My teachers encouraged me to score full marks in at least one subject. So, I started studying from 4 a.m. to 7 a.m., attended special classes in the evening after school hours, and studied at home till midnight,” he said. He wants to become a Tamil teacher and plans to take up BA Tamil at the Government College in Coimbatore.
Nandini, also from Tirupur, used to sell snacks along with her mother too was enrolled by the NCLP in a special school.
She had studied only up to Standard II, when she started working. She completed Plus-Two, scoring 958. She wants to become a computer science engineer.
Ramanathan and Nandini are among the nine students who were rescued and rehabilitated by the NCLP in Coimbatore and Tirupur districts and have completed Plus-Two this year. While three of them are from Coimbatore, six are from Tirupur district.
“We will recommend to the Government to pay them a stipend of ₹6,000 a year for college studies. If there is financial support from other organisations, it will help the students,” said D. Vijaya Kumar, project director of NCLP - Coimbatore.
Of the thirteen under trials and convicts who appeared for the examinations, 10 have passed. Of the ten, Velmurugan from Erode, a life convict in a murder case secured the highest marks of 1006, said M. Senthil Kumar, Superintendent of Central Prison, Coimbatore.
