CHENNAI : Children resettled to the fringes of the city travel as much as 50 km (one way) to get to school, reveals a report released by the Information and Resource Centre for the Deprived Urban Communities (IRCDUC) on Friday. The report, titled ‘Access to child care, education and nutrition services in the relocation settlements of Perumbakkam, Navalur and Gudapakkam’ stated that of the 200 children surveyed for the report, 28 children travelled over 50 km one way, to get to school while another 78 children (40 per cent) travelled over 20 km (one way) to access education.
“Children from these settlements study in schools that are located in 21 different locations. Of these 21 locations only 4 are located near the resettlement sites,” the report said. The report was prepared, using web mapping service applications to come up with accurate details of how long kids travelled to get to school and not just arrive at estimates, said Vanessa Peter, policy researcher, IRCDUC.
Speaking to Express, Saravanan (name changed), a class XI student in Perumbakkam, said that he reached home around 9 pm on school days, travelling from his school in Thousand Lights after sports practice. “It takes a minimum of two hours to reach our houses from school,” he said. However, Saravanan was among the lucky ones. The report found that students from Perumbakkam travelled the least to school in comparison with other resettlement sites, travelling an average of 22 km one way. In Navalur, for instance, students had to travel an average of 44 km (one way) to reach school.
For students in the resettlement colony in Gudapakkam in Thiruvallur district, the capacity of the existing high school in Gudapakkam, was full, the report found, since it already accommodates students who are from the locality itself. Access to early childhood care through anganwadi centres was also a rarity in the resettlement sites, the report found. The report found that only seven anganwadis were functioning in Perumbakkam.