From the street to the classroom

ALUVA: The kids who had been rescued from the clutches of the beggar-mafia and the child-labour-mafia by the volunteers of Janaseva Sisubhavan were admitted to Class I of the Janaseva English Medium School here. About 33 kids, in smart school uniforms could be found happy in the classrooms, holding study materials.The poor kids from the streets could not have dreamt of joining any school if they were not saved by institutions like the Janaseva. The kids who joined the class today include eight boys who had been brought from Manipur to be ‘sold’ as labour in the state. About 25 boys from the Janaseva Boys Home in Madurapuram and eight girls from the Janaseva Girls home attended the class for the first time. The Janaseva has sheltered about 300 kids who had been rescued from streets and different workplaces where they were exploited by mafia and agents for begging, circuses and child labour. Most of the kids were subjected to severe torture by their masters. The teachers in the Janaseva School found it extremely difficult to teach Malayalam to the kids as a majority of them were migrant children, said Jose Mavely, chairman of  the Janaseva. But the kids learnt the language and the lessons fast, thanks to committed efforts of the teachers in the school.