ERODE: Deprived of childhood and burdened with labour, the tribal children of Vilankombai were walking through darkness. Well, not any longer. At their rescue abode — a school established under the National Child Labour Project (NCLP) — the little hands held books instead of tools, for the first time. The children overwhelmed by their transformation journey experienced yet another glimmer of hope when the colours in their dreams came alive, “school size”.
The oneroom school building of these tribal children got a new lease of life with vibrant paintings. A teachers’ group — Pattampoochikal — based in Tirupur known for artistically renovating government school walls has extended the service to a child labour school in Vilankombai tribal hamlet, nestled in the lap of Sathyamangalam Tiger Reserve in the district.
TNIE in June had carried a story about these teachers who forme d Pattampoochikal in 2016 with an aim to give a facelift to government schools. The teachers of Pattampoochikal said, “Parents and students are attracted towards private schools as they have attractive infrastructure. So we decided to beautify old buildings of government schools in a bid to give them a new lease of life.
In the last four years, we have painted over 110 schools in 15 districts in the State.” Team coordinator of the group, Santhosh Kumar, said that they had painted 22 schools after the relaxation of Covid-19 lockdown norms kicked in. “Recently, we came to know about one school for tribal children under the National Child Labour Project in Vilankombai.
During a preliminary visit to the school, we came to know about the poor facilities in the hamlet and about two dedicated teachers, who had been living there for more than seven years, to serve the children. Usually, the schools would source some sponsors for procurement of paints, but considering the poor condition of this community, our team took over the full expenses,” they added.
The team added colour to the “boring, dull walls” by painting cartoon characters and subjectoriented figures. “Looking at the painting through the gleaming eyes of these kids made us experience the purest form of joy. It is a huge gift for them as they haven’t been exposed to the outer world,” said Sudar NGO Director, K Nataraj, who runs the NCLP school.
He added that the entire school is thankful to the Pattampoochikal group for reaching out to them despite many difficulties. As the group of teachers finished the painting, students’ joy knew no bounds. They ran around the building, caressing the newly painted walls. Rosemary, one of the students, said, “The cartoons we rarely got to watch on TV is now in our classroom. I can’t wait to get back to school. We are very excited.”