Mysuru: During a survey conducted by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and Integrated Tribal Development Programme on school dropout children from tribal backgrounds residing in the forest hamlets, it came to light that across the district, 179 of them had discontinued their education. Apart from this, it was also discovered that many tribal children studying in fifth and sixth standards had started smoking and getting addicted to alcohol. Taking a serious note of this, Deputy Commissioner D Randeep called upon the authorities to take up de-addiction and counselling programme for such students.
The survey also found the reasons for the children discontinuing their education. Majority of the children are discontinuing their education due to migration of their parents thus burdened with the responsibility to take care of their siblings. The parents in search of job migrate to various places including Kodagu and Kerala for coffee plantation related works. The survey was conducted from September to November 15, this year. Deputy Commissioner D Randeep called upon the authorities to chalk out different plans including de-addiction and counselling programmes and provide additional incentives to the children who are regular to classes.
Across the district, there are 206 tribal hamlets where there are 11,080 families among which 6076 children are studying in various classes and 179 of them were found to have dropped out from school. During the meeting which was convened at the Deputy Commissioner’s Office here on December 18, Randeep has given one week’s time to the authorities to come out with various attractive programmes including informal education along with music and dance to tribal children. During the meeting it also came to light that many tribal children in the age group of 10 to 11 years are addicted to smoking and drinking. Apart from remedial measures, as most of them are born physically fit, the authorities are even thinking of identifying them and groom them in sports.
Shiva Kumar, Project Coordinator, Integrated Tribal Development Programme who also took part in the survey said, “It’s really unfortunate that many children are addicted. Hence based on the direction from deputy commissioner, we have decided to come out with various plans to attract tribal children to school and also motivate them to take up good practices.” He also mentioned that the parents say that their son earns some money for their living. If they send them to school who will earn for them? So these sorts of questions have posed a lot of challenge to the authorities to get back the dropout children to school.
Sickle Cell Anaemia screening machine (HPLC) installed at K R Hospital:
The tribal population is prone to Sickle Cell Anaemia (SCA) because of malnutrition. SCA is a hereditary blood disorder which is commonly found among the tribals in the age group of 6 to 21 years of age. There are nearly 3.34 lakh tribal populations across the district. If anyone is found suffering from SCA, they will be given free treatment at K R Hospital itself. Earlier, for just screening Sickle Cell Anaemia in a private laboratory one needed to pay Rs 950 but now that facility is available at K R hospital itself. To know whether the tribals are suffering from SCA, they will be collecting blood samples among tribals across the district from January 1. Before they start collecting blood samples they will create awareness about the same.
