Refresher course for children in Gundri Hills

Children enjoying a street play during the three-day course held at Gundri Hills in Erode district.

With the Special Training Centres (STCs) under the National Child Labour Project scheduled to re-open on November 1 after a gap of 18 months, a three-day refresher course was conducted for the children in Gundri Hills here.

Rescued child workers and school dropouts in the district are enrolled in the STCs that are run by various Non-Governmental Organisations where children, depending on their age, undergo training till Class VIII after which they are admitted to regular schools.

These centres function under the Child Labour Division of the Ministry of Labour and Employment.

A total of 294 rescued child workers were enrolled in the 15 STCs in the district that function in the hill areas of Gundri, Talavadi, Bargur and Vilankombai and a few other tribal settlements.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the centres remained closed from March 2020.

The refresher course from October 24 to 28 was organised by Nila Palli and Kaliman Viralgal at the STC in Gundri in which children were taught origami, mask preparation, drawing and painting, and art and craft work with shells.

Spoken English class, traditional folk dances, thappattam , oyilattam and silambam were taught to the children.

During evening hours, the teams comprising Thamaraiselvan, Ezhil and programme coordinator C. Sathish and teacher Periyasamy performed street plays.

NCLP Project Director C. Subramaniyam was also present.