How School Students In Kerala Are Helping Eradicate Poverty

Since India gained independence, eradicating poverty has been on every government’s list. Unfortunately, many governments came and went, yet they haven’t been entirely successful in eradicating poverty.

Now, in Kerala’s Alappuzha district students have embarked on a journey to eradicate poverty from the district.

Student’s Initiative

Starting from February 6th, a batch of 100 school students in the Alappuzha district will adopt a struggling family from the district and donate items and food, every month under the initiative called, “Children for Allepey”.

The District Collector of the region, VR Krishna Teja said that the initiative will also help the students learn how to share and serve the community. With an aim to empower disadvantaged people, the district administration has identified 3,613 economically disadvantaged families and linked them to private and government schools.

Teja added, “Through this programme, Alappuzha will become the first district in the country where extremely poor families will be uplifted. In other words, there will be no more extreme poverty in Alappuzha from February 6.”

Also Read: Kerala Is Granting Maternity And Menstrual Leave To All Its University Students

Community Service Day

As per the initiative, every first Monday of the month, schools will observe “community service day” and essential items will be collected from the students and then distributed to the needy.  

Every school in the district, whether aided-unaided, CBSE, or ICSE will be a part of the initiative and work towards the upliftment of disadvantaged groups in society.

When the initiative was announced, Teja said, “Students can bring pulses, soap or toothpaste or atta, or any random useful item other than rice and cash. If a school of 300 students adopted three extremely poor families, the items collected will be segregated and given to them.”  Rice is not included in the scheme because rice is provided to needy people under the public distribution system.   

The initiative was lauded by the schools in the district and some schools have even decided to adopt one family for every 50 students.

Students, Parents Hailed As “Heroes”

The Collector said that no one is forced to contribute to the initiative.  “We have nominated one teacher in each school as a community service coordinator and a student as a community service leader. Everything will be coordinated through community service clubs,” he added.

The collector hailed the students and parents as “heroes”. “The entire credit goes to the students and their parents. Society itself has come forward to participate in it. Such initiatives will happen only in Kerala where the whole society has forward-thinking. They are coming forward. One school has already informed us that they were ready to provide medicines to the extremely poor family adopted by them…,” he said.

This initiative is the first one of its kind initiative and if successful, will help in eliminating poverty to a greater extent. 

Image Credits: Google Images

Feature image designed by Saudamini Seth

Sources: Free Press Journal, The Hindu, Outlook

Find the blogger: Palak Dogra

This post is tagged under: Kerala, school, poverty, poverty eradication, disadvantaged people, disadvantaged society, Alappuzha

Disclaimer: We do not hold any right, copyright over any of the images used, these have been taken from Google. In case of credits or removal, the owner may kindly mail us.

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