CU brightens up lives of street children
Kolkata: In a bid to bring more poor and needy students under the ambit of its community service programme, Calcutta University has started adopting street children in the vicinity of Giri Babu slum at Bowbazar in Central Kolkata.
The university had adopted Giri Babu slum last year as part of its community service to provide education and health support to the students in the slum.
"This effort is to extend our outreach programme in the area of community service so that more and more poor and needy students have education and healthcare facilities. We are also providing them with nutritious food, books and other education kits so that they can pursue their education without any difficulty," said CU Vice-Chancellor Sonali Chakravarti Banerjee.
The university has taken up the initiative under the National Service Scheme (NSS) programme conducted by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports of the union government, popularly known as NSS, the scheme that was launched in Mahatma Gandhi's centenary year in 1969 is aimed at developing student's personality through community service,
The university has already been able to reach out to over 80 students mainly in the age group of 6 to 15 years.
Health check up of their parents are also held once a year along with awareness programme related to hygiene time to time. The university has a special team of its students who are pursuing M. Phil or PhD for the community service programme.
" We provide the students with dresses twice a year and also take them on a day excursion every year during the winter. This year we are planning to take them to Alipore Zoo. Before the excursion they will be given winter garments," a senior official of the university said.
"We are now trying to provide facilities of basic computer education to these students. To begin with, we have arranged for two laptops for the purpose," said Minakshi Roy, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Finance).
The university syndicate in April last year had decided to adopt the slum after finding that many young boys and girls who have been studying in schools are finding it difficult to continue their education.
