THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Aimed at raising the academic performance of poor students, Varkala block panchayat has announced the second phase of the study room project in Scheduled Caste families.
Titled ‘padana muri’, the project aims to build a study room in the house of poor students.
The panchayat recently sanctioned Rs 1 crore to build study rooms for 50 students where each student would get an assistance of Rs 2 lakh in a phased manner. Besides school children, students of courses recognised by the state departments of general education and higher education would be eligible. The total area of the beneficiary’s house should not exceed 800 sqft.
“The essential components of the project are a tile-paved room with concrete roofing, an almirah and a fan. The room with at least 120 sqft area should have proper ventilation as well,” said block panchayat president M A Yoosuf. The beneficiaries would be identified by the grama sabhas under the block panchayat. The SC population in the block panchayat comes around 25,000 of which around 8,000 are in the Chemmaruthi panchayat.
The ‘padana muri’ project is a statewide initiative of the Scheduled Caste Development Department. It gains significance since the housing projects for SC families mostly have two rooms, besides the kitchen and common area. The block panchayat had built study rooms at 31 houses utilising Rs 62 lakh in the last fiscal.
“An assessment of the first phase showed the project helped to improve the academic performance of the students. Most of the beneficiaries last year were school students,” said Ajith Kumar, the SC development officer who supervised the project last year.
The officer said the project would help check the attrition rate of students. The block panchayat has also earmarked Rs 12 lakh to provide a yearly scholarship of Rs 20,000 to SC students in the current fiscal.
Students of diploma, degree and PG courses can apply. Last year, it was Rs 10 lakh.