As schools in Madhavaram open their doors for a new academic year, the “dumb boxes” placed at a corner in the school will once again fill up with many hand-me-downs. To help the poor, around 17 years ago, the Madhavaram Industries Association came up with the idea of keeping dumb boxes (which is a term they use to refer to collection boxes) at nine schools in the neighbourhood. The practice has become well-entrenched over the years.
As part of the exercise, students are asked to donate unused medicine, clothes, old notebooks and geometry boxes. The items dropped in the dumb boxes are collected by Association members.
“Old notebooks and stationery are given to poor children. With medicine, we first look for expiry dates and then give them to government hospitals. The initiative has been extremely successful and we collected drugs worth ₹ 9,000 last year,” says Vijay A. Mehta, who is the Association’s president for the last three decades.
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Other initiatives
The 27-odd housing colonies situated around Madhavaram’s industrial zone have benefited from the various schemes started by the Association, which was formed around 60 years ago.
The Association has launched initiatives aimed at involving students, factory workers, doctors, teachers and MTC staff.
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“These colonies have developed over a period of 30 years. To keep the residents motivated and increase the cleanliness quotient, every year we give an award for the cleanest colony. We also judge each of them on the total number of trees planted and the maximum number of polio vaccinations carried out in each colony,” he adds.
MTC drivers and conductors who are involved in the least number of accidents are given awards.
Another social initiative by the Association has helped hospitals and blood banks get blood of a particular blood group.
“We organise blood-grouping camps regularly and these are open to workers, family members and the general public. Once they get their blood groups checked, this information is passed on to four to five nursing homes in Madhavaram which in turn get in touch with the workers when there is a need,” says Mehta.
The industrial zone, which has around 160 factories trading in leather and steel products wish to connect young college graduates to prospective industries.
The concept is very similar to counselling done at colleges, explains Mehta.
“Students who register with us can submit their resumes and their job profiles will be matched with appropriate factories. We also take in school dropouts,” he added.
Fire service
As Madhavaram does not have fire engine services, the Association started their own fire service some years ago. They observed that to put out even a small fire, the fire engines had to come from as far as either Red Hills or Thiruvottiyur, which is 19km away.