Kartik now goes to school. Yes. It is something significant, because he is 11 years of age, son of farm labourers and has never been to a school before.
Belonging to a family in Peenjamandhai, a village atop Jawadhu hills in Tamil Nadu’s Vellore district, his parents have never attended school. Until recently Kartik too was grazing cattle. When his parents heard of the Peenjamandhai Residential Special Training Centres (RSTC), they were keen to enrol their son in it.
With the help of volunteers and support of Hand in Hand, an NGO, Kartik now goes to school. “I love my school. I never knew learning could be so much fun,” Kartik says. The 11-year-old has made steady progress in his academics, learning with great zeal.
With its head office in Little Kancheepuram , Hand in Hand NGO works towards creating a better tomorrow for many children. At present, it has a presence in Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh. One of the projects of this NGO that has gained momentum is their Child Labour Elimination Programme or CLEP that was initiated with the intention of rescuing child labourers and sending them to study in schools. So far Hand in Hand NGO has rescued thousands of children. These children now go to school and education has become a reality for them. About 2.59 lakh children are enrolled in schools that are run by the Government.
This NGO has also established several learning centres for children called Residential Special Training Centres (RSTC). It now operates nine such centres. The aim of these centres is to train children in vocational training. Children who would otherwise not go to school, especially the ones from village background, are identified and enrolled in the nine RSTCs.
One child labour who was rescued by this NGO is Suguna. Several years have passed, yet Suguna cannot forget what she went through as a child. She used to work in a weaving loom at a tender age of 10 with nimble fingers. She was successfully rescued by volunteers of Hand in Hand and from then on life took a u-turn for her.
She belongs to the first batch of students to study from Poongavanam Residential Special Training Centre (RSTC). Suguna is now 22 years old and she holds her Master’s degree in Information Technology (IT). Suguna works for Hand in Hand India’s IT team, by choice.
Hand in Hand NGO also works on areas like natural resource management and solid waste management, among other initiatives.