KOCHI: Tucked away in the hills of Kanan Devan in Munnar, surrounded by the luscious greenery of the tea plantations, stands Srishti, a school for the differently-abled. Over the quarter century of its existence, the school has earned a reputation for providing education and supporting the development of children with different abilities in Munnar.
Started as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative of Tata Global Beverages Ltd. and supported by Tata Trusts, Srishti has been running its Developmental Activities in Rehabilitative Education (DARE) school here for the past 25 years.
At DARE, the differently-abled children are taught life skills, basic reading and writing, fundamentals of mathematics and arts, all free of charge. Once their education is completed and they reach adulthood, they are imbibed into the other projects of Srishti that operate alongside DARE.
“In the last 25 years, 205 children have passed through DARE and rehabilitated. Many are with Srishti and others have been employed elsewhere. These children lead a life as any so-called ‘normal’ children,” says Ratna Krishnakumar, managing trustee of Srishti, who set up DARE along with another teacher in November 1991.
At present, the school has 62 students and 11 teachers and four attendees to take care of them. Each day, the children, who are within 40 km radius of the campus, are picked up, brought to school and dropped back to their homes by Srishti’s bus service.
Many of the earlier alumni of DARE are employed in the other Srishti projects which are located within the complex namely, Athulya (a handmade paper and stationery unit), Aranya (natural dye and textile design units), Nisarga (fruit preserve unit), The Deli (bakery and confectionery unit) and the Vegetable Garden. A few of the students in these units have undergone training in countries like US and Japan.
The food products made in the units in Srishti do not use any artificial preservatives nor does its paper and dye units use artificial colours. The textiles with shibori designs, a Japanese manual resist dyeing technique, made in Aranya are popular in India and abroad.
The success of Srishti has invited many requests to replicate the system in other parts of the country. “We don’t have any plans to set up the school anywhere else at present. I would be delighted to start such an endeavour elsewhere if I get staff as dedicated as I have here,” says Ratna.