VEDANTA KHUSHI : " PARI HU MAIN "

'Raju' is eight years old and his sister 'Pari' just about 4 years. Their parents have gone for the work and they are both left alone. Eight year is not an age to bear the responsibility for parenting a 4 year old but apparently Raju has no choice. The parents could not leave Pari alone. The worst fear of all sorts come in mind so Raju has been made to do baby sitting. Handling Pari was not that simple, she would insist Raju to take her out in the market as she felt irritated inside the four walls.

This is the incident of Nilgiri in Tamil Nadu where thousands of people come for want of work in the tea-gardens of Nilgiri. The children of all these parents either just roam in markets or roam on the streets. Many also get exploited or either get into unlawful activities. The children of migrating parents either grow up too early or they never grow up.

One of the NGO in Tamil Nadu approached a company for giving a helping hand in supporting these children. The company has always been keen for coming forward and helping such projects, and thus agreed to support this NGO. Now Raju and Pari go to school. They have uniform and get daily lunch. They sing prayer and are learning the lessons that would help them throughout their lives.

But Pari is Pari, ask her favourite song and she sings "Pari Hu Main" in top of the voice and claps the entire class. Pari dances and with her many more children. Their life has changed.

The life of another about 650 Rajus and Paris have changed indeed. 35 schools today are giving quality education to 650 children of migratory parents. More than 50% of these children are girls. Besides these children get hot meals every day.

All these children are in the age group of 4-12 years and have been provided with notebooks, Hindi text books, story books, chalks, slates, pencils, bags, uniforms, to name a few. There are 31 Teachers, 31 Assistant Teachers and one cook in each school, a total of 96 people.

In India, a large part of the contract or daily wage labours move from one state to another for want of work. The culture is such that husband and wife both migrate together with their children for work and settle down at the new location till they engaged. The concentration is more where the likelihood of employment is regular and extends for the entire season or for more days. Tea estates, large farms and large construction sites attract these labours most.

The number of such children may be very high across India, but KHUSHI made the beginning, at least.

Some day you begin and then you prosper, but the beginning is the time when you need support – emotional as well as financial, for such projects.

"KHUSHI" on the faces of these children is to be seen to be believed.

You would like to know the company and the NGO. Well, the NGO is RDO and the company is non-other than VEDANTA GROUP.

"Let us make India a child malnourished free country", Mr. Anil Agarwal, Chairman - Vedanta Group