Project Karkai Nandre

Though the ancient Tamil community realised a thousand years ago that knowledge is an everlasting wealth, education was confined to select populations for a long time owing to different political and social causes. In the context of a shift in both time and regime, even when all students had the opportunity to attend schools, the vast majority of students were unable to complete their school education due to their families' financial position, resulting in a worrisome increase in school dropouts.

 

After years of battle, just as the various social assistance initiatives and numerous awareness programmes attempted to bridge the gap between the students of less privileged backgrounds and education, the unforeseen COVID-19 outbreak overturned the years of progress that we had achieved toward the aim of 'Education for All'.

 

The number of child labourers in India grew dramatically as a result of school closures during the COVID-19 induced lockdowns. The 2020 census reported that there are 3.3 crore child labourers in India, which is much more than prior years' figures. It is easy to see that school dropout rates and growing child labour rates are directly linked to one another.

 

Despite the schools being opened, many teachers noticed that a lot of their students did not return to school, and upon further investigation, they found that a significant number of school students had begun to work as daily-wage workers to deal with their family's economic situation, which had been amplified by the pandemic. According to one poll, one in every eight students drop out of school in order to support their family's financial demands and owing to conditions such as child labour and child marriage.

 

Apart from indicating an increase in child labour, the rise in school dropouts also hinted at other societal difficulties, such as an increase in child marriage and crimes against children. Many high school girls were compelled to marry, and sexual harassment of girls of school going age has also escalated in several regions in recent times owing to school closures.

 

Though it is a difficult challenge to halt the rising school dropout rate in the current environment, there is no denying that the government has the primary duty and responsibility for resolving this issue. But that should not stop us from doing everything we can to keep this social scourge in control.

 

ThiruTamizh Foundation firmly believes that education is the only path to a better society, and that reducing school dropouts is crucial to achieving this goal. Conscious of our social responsibility, we initiated '#Project_Karkai_Nandre' to contribute to the reduction of school dropouts. The project derives its name from the lines of a famous Tamil poem ‘Pichai Puginum Karkai Nandre’ (பிச்சை புகினும் கற்கை நன்றே) that translates to 'Learning is valuable even when one is reduced to begging.'

 

The Karkai Nandre programme was created to assist students who drop out of school owing to their family's financial status in completing their school education in every manner possible. Under this initiative, meritorious students who have left out of school owing to family economic difficulties are identified, and the ThiruTamizh Foundation intends to cover all educational expenditures for these students, including tuition, book fees, and hostel fees. Additionally, the ThiruTamizh Foundation will educate parents about the problems caused by school dropouts in order to ensure the student is not forced to quit school education in the future.

 

The Karkai Nandre initiative will initially benefit students in government and government-aided schools, but will eventually be expanded to support deserving students in private institutions as well.