A. Narkis is now poorer by well over ₹1 lakh, but what she has done with that money has left her enriched for life.
Teacher at the Panchayat Union Primary School in Thiruvallur district, Narkis has the satisfaction of helping 125 underprivileged students, providing them with groceries, each bag worth ₹1,000, and soaps and masks.
Similarly, C. Hemalatha, principal of Panchayat Union Primary School in Kundrathur, Kancheepuram, provided the families of all her 30 students with bags of groceries, each worth ₹1,350. She extended the same gesture towards sweepers and watchmen.
“One of our former sweepers was also helped as she is quite old and has been abandoned by her children,” says Hemalatha.
Sometime ago, N. Thirunavukkarasu, a teacher at Panchayat Union Middle School, Marudham, Kancheepuram, headed to students’ houses at Uthiramerur and handed bags of vegetables and groceries and stationeries, bringing to culmination a joint initiative by the teachers of the school.
“Seven teachers from our school including principal K. Kalaivani pooled in money to collect ₹25,000. Of the 113 students, 30 were chosen for the assistance, the choice being guided by factors such as student being under the care of a single parent; whose father is an alcoholic; or being part of the Irula community. Two children with degenerative disease conditions were also chosen,” says Thirunavukkarasu.
D. Varadharajan, a science teacher at Panchayat Union Middle School at Teyampakkam in Kancheepuram distributed guides to six students of class XII as distribution of textbooks could be delayed due to the lockdown. They had been his students from class I to VIII; although they now studying in another school (government-run higher secondary school), Varadharajan continues to mentor them.
The teachers say parents of the students are either farm labourers or daily wagers working under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme. Further, some of their students had been redeemed from bonded child labour.
R. Thenmozhi, principal of Panchayat Union Middle School in Thaiyur in Thiruvannamalai reaches old issues of Tamil and English dailies, books from the school's library, and colour pencils and A4 papers for drawing to economically disadvantaged students. She also gets them sweets and savouries. To make all of these things possible, she makes a trip, driving 30km, once a week.
P.K. Elangovan, an English teacher at Panchayat Union Middle School, Mettukuppam, Kancheepuram, drives to his school, eight km from his house, once in four days to tend to tree saplings on the campus. “There are 20 saplings of neem and pongamia , around four feet tall, and we don’t want them to wilt away for want of water,” says Elangovan.
