Introduction

The Anthropology Department of Madras University and Srinivasan Service Trust jointly organized a 45 days Internship programme in Javad Hills in Tiruvanamalai District in May-June 2005. We – M. Dhamodharan and Malay Kumar – were part of the Education Team which took part in the field work as part of this internship programme. This is a report of our activities and observations and our study of the education situation of the Malayali Tribals. Our report is based on our direct work and first hand observations in ten of the villages in the Javad Hills.

This report is in 3 parts:

1. Overall Education Status - Studies and Observations

2. Comparative Case Studies of 2 Schools

3. Our Intervention and Actions with Suggestions for follow up

The main objectives of our field work

• To understand the education status of children in the Malayali Tribes and the reasons for it.

• To understand the perception of parents, teachers and students about the need for education.

• To analyze the level of school infrastructure available for these children.

• To gather information about and to find out about the level of higher education in the tribals.

• To survey each village and identify un-enrolled and dropped-out children and to enumerate and analyze the stages of drop-out by standards.

• To identify the major reasons for dropout

• To mobilize local volunteers to intervene in improving the status of education in these villages and to train them on programmes to do this.

• To initiate educational intervention programmes in the area.

Methodology

We used a multi-pronged approach to study the educational status in the villages. We visited all the ten villages and all the schools to study first hand the infrastructure and functioning of the schools. We interviewed students, parents, teachers and headmasters to get their opinions and ideas about how the schools were being run and the problems they were facing. We compared the infrastructure of 2 schools. We studied the reasons for drop-out and also did a child-by-child reading levels study to estimate the level of learning in these children. We also discussed ideas for improvement with the local community and even initiated some of these ideas through our direct interventions.

The Education Situation amongst the Malayali Tribals

There are ten villages in the area (see Annexure 1). Out of these only seven villages have schools (See Annexure 2). Of these five villages have primary schools, one village has middle school, and one village has both a private nursery and a government primary school.

The overall status of education amongst the Malayali tribals is very low. Today there are 144 school age children who were never enrolled in schools. In addition 29 students have dropped out in different classes. (See Annexure 3 & 4 for drop-out and un-enrolled children’s details.)

Reasons for Low enrollment and High drop out

There are several complex and inter-linked factors that lead to this poor enrollment and high drop out rate. We can classify the major reasons into 5 different categories:

1. School and Teacher based reasons

2. Family based economic reasons

3. Parental Attention and Role Models

4. Access

5. Gender inequality

1. School Based Reasons:

   1. Lack of Sufficient Teachers: Most of the schools have only one or two teachers for classes 1 to 5. So one teacher has to handle multiple classes. They are unable to give enough attention to each class. If one teacher is unable to come one day, then the school has a holiday.

   2. Teacher’s Attendance: Teachers attendance to school is very irregular. This happens often because of the distance and difficulty in traveling to the school. Teachers are not from the tribal areas themselves and travel everyday from outside. Teacher motivation is also very low. As the parents find the teachers are irregular, they don’t find much point in sending their children to school.

   3. Teaching Quality: The quality of teaching is poor and the students find that they are not able to learn much even if they attend classes regularly. They are unable to do home-work because there is no one at home who can help.

   4. Corporal Punishment: Teachers beat the students. So several children are afraid of going to school. Children who are unable to complete homework fear the teachers and so don’t go to school. Falling sick happens often here and in some cases like chicken pox, they have to stay at home for a long time. Even after recovering, they are afraid of going back to school because of fear of punishments.

2. Family based economic reasons:

   1. Poverty and Migration: Many families are extremely poor and have to migrate outside to find work. Often children in these families have to leave school and either go with their parents, or look after their younger brothers and sisters. For example in several families we found that the father has gone to Kerala to dig Bore wells and the mother was unable to maintain the cattle. So she was forced to pull children out of school to take care of the cattle.

   2. House work and Sibling Care: Parents are very busy with working in the fields and outside. So older children (particularly girls) are pulled out of school to help with house work and also to look after younger children.

   3. High Mortality: There is a high mortality rate here. If the father dies, then the children go out to work and earn for the family.

   4. Inflexible School Timings: During the harvesting period children have to stay in the fields to protect crops from birds. Since schools don’t have vacations then and don’t allow children to come back and make up after the harvest period, children drop out during that period.

1. Parental Attention and Role Models:

1. As their older brothers and sisters have dropped out, younger children do not have a good role model and therefore easily drop out.

2. Parents leave to work at 7 in the morning and come back very late are unable to check whether their children are going to school. They even get to know that their children have dropped out only several weeks after the drop out has happened.

1. Access:

   1. Distance between the school and home is very far and even ordinary travel to the school is difficult for the children.

   2. There is no bus or other transport facility in the area.

   3. During rainy season streams are flooded and children find it difficult to cross them to go to school.

1. Gender Inequalities:

   1. After Puberty parents do not allow the girls to go the school.

   2. Parents feel that sending girls to school is not going to help their future.

   3. While going and returning from school through rocky paths often girls are teased by boys and men.

   4. Often girls are the ones pulled out to help mothers at home or to look after their younger brothers and sisters.

All these factors above conspire to ensure that a lot of children drop out of school and ensures a low status of education amongst the tribals.

How different people perceive the problem?

To get a clearer picture of the complex problem and to better understand each of the above factors, we interviewed several parents, students and teachers. Below are the major perceptions amongst the different groups.

What Parents Said:

• Teachers are irregular, So why should we send our children to school?

• Even after finishing 5^th std, our children cannot read even simple words. What use is the school?

• Usually the Teacher comes to school at 11 AM and goes back at 1 PM. During this time they cannot teach anything. Children go to school only because they get some food as part of the noon meal scheme.

• The school has a Parent-Teacher Association. We cannot understand what the teachers are saying at that meeting – they never explain the issues to us clearly. We are simply asked to put our signatures and go.

What Students Said:

• School is boring and we learn nothing there.

• We can play games in our village. We are not interested in going to school.

• There is too much homework and we cannot do it.

• Some students feel that they want to go to school but our parents are not allowing us to go.

• Our parents go to work and so we have to take care of our brothers and sisters.

What Teachers Said:

• The long distance of the school from their villages makes students drop out and this leads to low student strength in the schools.

• Parents migrate to other areas for labor work. Children also go with them for work and this is a major cause for dropout.

• During rainy season streams are overflowing with water and so children cannot cross the stream for 15 or more days. They stay at home after that as they lose their interest in coming to school.

• When parents visit their relatives for a few days, children also go with them. After that they lose interest in coming to school.

• Parents stop children from school to do household work and to herd cattle.

• Awareness about the importance of education has not spread in these villages and so parents don’t care to send children to school.

• When asked about the problems they face, teachers mentioned that the distance to the school was a major problem, particularly with no transportation facilities. They also felt that there were lots of health problems in the area which made it difficult for them to work here.

Note: Just because we have listed the perceptions above, it does not mean we agree with these perceptions or feel they are valid. We have merely reported what different groups felt about the problem and said. For instance several teachers felt that students lose interest in school after visiting relatives or after not coming to school for two weeks during the rains. But we feel that the real hidden problem that the teacher’s are unable to see is that the children find the school uninteresting anyway. So every excuse is used to not come to school. If the school was more interesting and engaging, they would have wanted come back to school even if during the rains they missed school for 15 days. Similarly teachers were silent about their irregular attendance or teaching quality. But the knowledge of the above perceptions is important as it helps us understand the reasons for drop outs as seen from different angles.

Interviews with Two Teachers:

We have reproduced our interviews with 2 school teachers as these give a qualitative picture of the perception of teachers.

1. Mr. Moorthy: He is a teacher on deputation in the Panchayat Primary School in Sattampathi. He said:

   1. I want to develop the tribal children but don’t have support from the management.

   2. If the Head Master does not come to school one day, then nobody is there take care of the school.

   3. I am coming from Arani daily. I travel a long distance. Morning I cannot even take breakfast.

   4. I was working earlier in Neeplampattu School. But since this school had only single teacher I was asked to come here on deputation.

   5. The PTA has been formed but it has not been functioning for 1 year.

1. Mr. Thangadurai: He is a Teacher at the Panchayat Primary School in Thumbakkadu. He said:

   1. I come everyday from Moolakkadu. It is 60 kms from Thumbakadu. Before this I was working in Seengadu school. Seengadu School is on a hill. Because of my Hydrocile problem I was not able to climb the hill everyday. So I got a transfer to Tumbakadu. Even here I have a problem in traveling 60 km everyday. I want a posting in one of the schools near my house.

   2. After I came to this school, student’s enrollment has increased because I generally ask the parents to send their children to school.

Comparative Case Studies of two schools

CASE STUDY ON NATPU NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOL

This is a private school started and run by Mr. Stanley Mohan (Director of the school). The school was initially functioning as a nursery school from a rented room in Daniayamathurs. In 2003, the director pledged his wife’s jewels at a pawn shop and purchased the land at Amirthi. The school building was constructed in 2003 and has been functioning for 1½ years. The school has basic facilities like chairs, tables, sufficient number of class rooms and water.

CURRENT CLASS STRENGTH

We asked how there were students in the 3^rd standard even though the school was only 1½ years old. Mr. Mohan informed us that the Government has passed an order by which an 8 year old Malayali child can directly join 3^rd standard. Usually many students dropout from the school in the 2^nd and 3^rd standard. The teachers in the school said that the reason for dropout was students visiting their relatives and staying there for very long time.

Fees Details:

For Javadu Hills Children there are no fees. But for children from outside, there are hostel fees.

Hostel Fees for Boys - Rs 1000/- (yearly)

Hostel Fees for Girls - Rs 800/- (yearly)

The Director of NATPU school told us that they don’t charge a monthly fee from the students. Some people from Balabirampattu and Sattampattu villages also told us that NATPU school does not charge a monthly fee. But Elumalai a ten-year-old boy from Kaanamalai village told us that some of his friends are studying in NATPU school and every month they pay Rs 100/- as fees.

Overall the people from the nearby villages felt that the coaching in the school in quite good. If children don’t go to school, teachers visit their homes and get them to come to school. There are more teachers here than in government schools. The infrastructure is quite good with good water and toilet facilities.

The information for this case study was provided by:

1. From Natpu School: Mr. Stanly Mohan (Director), and the school teachers - Dhanalaxmi, Ravi and Anand.

2. People from Balabirampattu village: Andi (VFC), Panneer, Samikannu, Pattu, Annamalai and Kumar.

3. People from Amrithi: Raji (Uran), Sekar, Saminathan and Kumar.

CASE STUDY ON PANCHAYAT SCHOOL IN SATHAMPATTU

This school was started in 1963 under a tree in the village. In 1980-81 the school building was constructed under the Tanniraivu Scheme. The school has 2 teachers – K.S. Rajan (the Head Master) and P.M.Moorthy (a teacher on deputation). The head master comes from Devikapuram which is 138 km from Sathampattu. It takes two hours and fifteen minutes for him on traveling. P.M. Moorthy came to this school on deputation ten months earlier. But he has started coming to the school regularly only for five months.

Current Class Strength

32 students in fifth standard have just gone out of the school this year. So the present strength is 11 boys and 17 girls – totally 28 students only.

Earlier there were 180 students from 11 villages around the school. Even in 2000 the total strength was 150 students. The villages that the school catered to were: Mallimedu, Nagarur, Avaramvalasai, Puliyankuppam, Murugananthai, Kooranoor, Arasamaruthur, Thaniyamarathur, Balapirampattu, Sattampattu, Solayam. But in the last five years, 80 students took TC and joined government schools in Nagarur and Puliyankuppam. Students coming from Balabirampattu have joined Natpu School. This has led to an overall reduction in the number of children in the school.

The major reason for the decrease in the school strength is that the Head Masters (who were the only permanent teachers in the school until recently) have not been coming regularly to school. This meant that the school itself was functioning irregularly. Even the teachers on deputation are irregular. Obviously this has also affected the quality of teaching in the schools.

The one factor which continues to bring some children at least into the school is the mid-day meal program. The school provides mid day meals for 30 students. Ammakannu, the cook, stays in Satampattu and gets provisions from the BDO office. Every Thursday the school provides eggs and dhal to the children as protein supplement.

There is a Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in the school that was started on 6-9-1996. The PTA meetings are organized only once in a year – as a formality. In the last PTA meeting a resolution was passed requesting every PTA member to enroll children who homes are far from the school. In addition the PTA informally appointed Sozhayam Muthusami as a PTA teacher. When he was taking classes, he would bring along and enroll 20 students. He was being paid Rs. 500 for his teaching services. He had asked for a raise to Rs. 1000 which was not sanctioned as the PTA did not have funds. So he left the job.

The school also has a VLC that was started on 9-11-1995 but which has not been functioning effectively.

In 2002-03, a water tank was constructed by TWAD. But it has no water connection and is damaged. Therefore the tank is not in use. A toilet was constructed during 2003-2004 under the Total Sanitation Programme at an estimated cost of Rs. 20,000. But it is also damaged and not in use. A kitchen room was constructed under Velai Vaippu Uruthi Allippu Thittam (Employment Guarantee Scheme) during 1997-1998. This is functioning and is being used for cooking the noon meal.

Under the SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abiyan) Scheme, funds are provided to government school teachers to buy teaching-learning materials. In this school the teachers purchased the following with this funding:

1. They have bought charts and Thermo Cole for making designs.

2. They have constructed a bio-fence around the school.

3. They have purchased tables and chairs.

4. They are planning to put a grill gate for the school.

As can been seen very little was spent on TLMs but instead was spent on infrastructure. Possibly because there is a lack of imagination on what can be used as TLM in class. Apart from the above funding for purchases by the teachers, the SSA scheme also provided the following materials directly: Bags, Books, Uniform, Geometry box, Colour pencils, Scale, etc. From the NPEGL scheme (Desiya Penkalvi Thittam) girl students have got bags.

The information for this case study was provided by:

1. From the School: K.S. Rajan and Moorthy

2. From the School Students

3. From the people in the villages nearby.

Our Interventions and Actions with Follow up Suggestions

In the limited time available we were able to do the following interventions in the area:

Enrollment Campaign

1. Door to Door Campaign: In 9 villages we did a door to door campaign and discussed with parents of unenrolled and dropout children and tried to convince them to re-enroll their children.

1. Rally and Enrollment: In 9 villages we also organized rallies by children for literacy awareness and school enrollment. The children went through the village shouting out slogans and carrying posters and placards and motivating parents to send their children to school. In each village about 25-30 children participated in the rally.

In one village we went back after the rally to identify individual children who has dropped out or never enrolled and we got 9 children enrolled in the 1^st standard! Two of these children had earlier dropped out and 7 had never enrolled in school. (See Annexure 5).

Village Mobilization Programmes

This was organized to mobilize local youth and to motivate them to volunteer and to also understand the need for education improvement in the village.

1. Street Play: In 9 villages we organized street plays on the theme of girl child’s education which was attended by about 40 people in each village. In every village immediately after the skit, several people from the audience came forward and said that they will send their daughters to school from now if we can get the teachers to come regularly.

1. Magic Shows and Activity Sessions: In 7 villages we organized magic shows to mobilize the people. In each village about 30-50 people attended the program.

Through the mobilization programmes, we have identified volunteers in each village who are planning to take up primary education support classes and also organize adult education programmes in their villages. The list of volunteers is attached in Annexure 6.

Adult Education Programmes

1. Adult Education: In each village in May we initiated adult education centers with illiterate women from the village with help from school students. In one village (Thumbakadu) we were able to re-visit the center after a month to see the progress. We found all the 15 women we had started the programme for were now able to sign their names on the SHG registers!

Special Programmes

1. Science Experiment Session: On 7^th June we went to Keshavapuram high school. For the 10^th Std students we conducted low cost science experiment demonstration on Air Pressure, Surface Tension and Newton’s laws. Totally 98 students (52 boys, 46 girls) participated in this session.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT IN THE EDUCATION STATUS

We have 3 categories of suggestions:

1. Radical suggestions that require the state administration to take certain actions.

2. School Level Suggestions that can be implemented by the school HMs and Teachers with local community support.

3. Community and NGO level actions that can be implemented by village volunteers.

State Administration Level Suggestions

1. Since teachers from outside are finding it so difficult to reach the school, appoint local teachers who can stay in the village. Or fund the PTA to appoint such teachers. Provide them with sufficient training to take the class effectively.

2. Appoint more teachers in the school – one per class.

3. Monitor teachers attendance in the schools strictly.

4. Provide summer holidays during the harvest season, so that most children can attend to the harvest work and also attend school later. Or during the harvest season change the school timings to the evenings or night – so that children can attend school. (for this provide electricity and lighting in the schools.)

5. Organize a crèche (balwadi) for younger children – so that older children can attend school.

School Level Suggestions

What Teachers Can Do to prevent drop-outs:

1. Stop beating in the school

2. Organize a crèche in the school with a local Ayya paid by the PTA so that children can bring their siblings and leave them in the school itself.

3. Once a child drops out, immediately visit the parents and address the problem. A stitch in time saves nine!

4. Children who miss classes because of migration, should be allowed to re-enroll and should have extra support classes to make-up.

5. Teachers can make the PTA function actively.

What teachers can do to improve quality of education:

1. Focus on activity based learning methods – using songs, games and story telling, etc.

2. Focus on specific problems that each child is facing – help children individually.

3. Organize festivals and melas and projects to build excitement in children.

4. Teachers can encourage group study among the students to help slow learners improve.

Infrastructure Improvement that can be made:

1. The roof is made of Asbestos sheet, which makes the room very hot and uncomfortable. If we put bamboo loft and allow breeze flow, it will make the room cooler.

2. Student level blackboards can be made on the walls.

3. Each student can be given one plant and they can take care of that plant – this will improve the surroundings of the school.

4. Indoor and outdoor games materials should be available in the school.

Community and NGO Level Actions

1. Form a village education committee consisting of volunteers.

2. This volunteer team should identify slow learners who have problems in reading and writing and basic arithmetic. They can organize evening support classes for these children and build their confidence and help them learn the basic skills. In a few months they will be able to learn on their own.

3. The volunteers can organize evening tuition centers to help children with home work.

4. Every year the volunteer team can organize a door-to-door campaign for enrolling the children and for convincing parents whose children are dropping out.

5. The volunteer can monitor children’s attendance at school each month and follow up with the parents of children who drop out.

6. The community can build low cost wooden bridges across the streams for children to cross during the rains.

7. The community can ensure that the PTA function effectively.

8. The community should also monitor the teachers attendance in school.

9. The community can mobilize funds to pay for extra teachers in the school if necessary (and if the government does not appoint more local teachers).

10. The community can also organize a creche programme with volunteers in rotation taking care of all the younger children – allowing school children to go to schools.

Annexure 1: List of villages

Annexure 2: School List

Annexure 5: Children who were enrolled in Panchayat Primary School at Thumbakadu on 6^th June 2005

Dropout children re-enrolled

1. Kumaresan s/o Chinnapoochi joined in 1^st std

2. Deepa D/o Selvaraj joined in 1^st std

Never enrolled children enrolled for the first time

1. Selvakumar S/o Raman

2. Saundhar S/o Sekar

3. Prabhu S/o Kumar

4.Deeran S/o Annamalai

5.Sandhiya S/o Sundaram

6.Nandhini S/o Manni

Annexure 6: Education Volunteers List

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

We started on 2^nd May 2005 at 11`o’clock from Koyambedu. We planned our internship programme for 45 days and went to Javadu Hills to study about a tribal group named Malayali. We divided ourselves into four groups.

1. Education team

2. Health and Hygiene

3. Campaign team

4. CBO- Community Based Organization

Malay and myself were the part of Education team. We tried to fulfill the objective of Education team. Srinivasan Service Trust helped us in the internship programme. We did our fieldwork in ten villages. Out of that eight villages come under Kaanamalai Panchayat and one under Kutakarai Panchayat (Thumbakadu) the last come under Dhindivanam Panchayat (Ganeshpuram). In Ganeshpuram village non-malayali people are living. In the field we have not faced any food problem because the local people will give us food whenever we go their houses. But they will not allow us to sit inside the house, because they believe there is god inside their house. So no outsiders are allowed inside the house.

Three villages namely Thumbakadu, kallathur, Bonganur was very far. We have walk 2 km from the bus stop to reach the village. While going from kallathur to Padhimalai we have to climb a Natupurathan hill which was in 90 degree angle and passed through Nellimanthai to reach Pathimalai. We started in the morning 9:30 and reached there about 12:30pm. While climbing we were also carrying heavy bags and luggage’s on our heads and shoulders. In the field we were scared of wild animals like jackal, scorpion, snake and other insects. We also faced severe health problems like stomachache, dysentery, fever.

ABOUT THE MALAYALI TRIBE

Malayali tribe call themselves Malaikaran, while others refer to them as Malai Jati, Malai Goundin and Malaikaran. They believe that they originally belonged to the Vellalla caste of cultivators and migrated from Kanchipuram to the hills of south-west Tamil Nadu. A few generations ago from Kanchipuram seven men belonging to karakattu vellalar caste,went to Javadu hills for hunting. There they married girls who belong to Malaivedan community. After their marriage they went back to their home (kanchipuram). But there their relatives and other people in their village did not allow them to live there. They were forced to go out of the village. So they did not have any other alternative than going back to Javadu hills. But in javadu hills the Malaivedan community people also were not accepting these people. Finally they called for a panchayat and decided that each family should pay some amount of money to the panchayat. Since they didn’t have any money they decided every year whenever the Palayakar comes they should give whatever they have in their home. The seven family members accepted this and the practice was stopped just before 15 years.

Malaiyali has been derived from the words malai, meaning hill and al, meaning person, and is used to denote hill people. They are predominantly distributed in the Jawadi hills of the Thiruvannamalai district They are non-vegetarians but abstain from eating beef. Their staple food consists of ragi, rice, samai (a millet), jowar, horse-gram, groundnut and wild yams. Only the men among them consume local varieties of alcoholic drinks.

The age at marriage for boys is around twenty-one years, while the girls get married after attaining puberty. Spouses are generally acquired through negotiation. Instances of marriage through elopement and courtship have also been reported. Monogamy is the common practice, though polygamy is allowed. Divorce and remarriage of widowed and divorced persons is permitted.Levirate and sororate also exist. Bride price is paid in both cash and kind. They follow the patrilocal rule of residence and succession is by the eldest son. A predominance of nuclear families is seen among them. Parental property is inherited by the male line. The Malayali women take part in agricultural operations, animal husbandry, collection of fuel, fetching water and other economic activities. They also participate in social, religious and ritual affairs. The family expenditure is controlled by the women. Some restrictions are observed by them before and after childbirth. The childhood rituals of tonsure and ear piercing are performed. The attainment of puberty entails pollution for five days. The dead are buried and a period of pollution is observed for eight days. A ritual karumathi is performed to terminate the pollution. The names are worshipped by them. Agriculture is the principal occupation for a majority of the Malayali. Sericulture, honey-collection, cattle and pig rearing are their subsidiary occupations.

They make use of both modern and indigenous systems of medicine and show favourable attitude towards family planning programs. Sources of drinking water are dug-wells and hand-pumps. At some places water is supplied through pipes. Sources for irrigation are rainwater and dug-wells. The cultivators use organic manure along with chemical fertilizers and insecticides.

The Post Office is located at Pattaraikadu. From padhimalai and kallathur it is

3-4km far. It takes more than three days to reach the village from the Post office. They use to send letter through local people from the respective villages.

PROBLEM FACED BY COMMUNITY

• Social exclusion of tribal

• Non recognition of their tribal status

• Difficulty in getting community certificate

• Low level of access to land

• Low level of Productivity

• Lack of employment

• Low income levels

• Poor Health

• Poor housing

• Low level of education

• High levels of debt

• Depletion of NTFP

• Alienation from land

THINGS THAT I LEARNT FROM THE FIELD

• This is the first time I stayed in a remote village were there was no facilties. The experience was very nice.

• I became a part of their family member by helping them like grinding ragi, getting firewood for them. By participatory approach I was able to get the necessary data’s from them.

• I learnt how to ask questions. For example: if I ask them how much tamarind and mustard you are getting from the forest? The answer will we will not be getting anything. But the same question if I ask in this manner like you can get the tamarind, mustard etc from the forest and keep it for your monthly expenses isn’t it? Now the answer will be we use to get only 5kg apart from Monkey’s eating. Therefore it is very important to know how to ask questions.

• Through Participatory Rural Appraisal I learnt how to draw Social map and to collect village profile.

• I learnt what is meant by transit walk.

• I learnt the importance of case study and comparative study, and focus group interviews.

• Importance of conflict resolution and how to solve it.

• To draw bar diagram and pie chart.

THINGS WE DID IN FIELD

• I organized Literacy Awareness Rally in which the local children both school going and non-school going participated.

• We painted our face and organized public and performed a street play called Saraswathi and Cholera.

• We conducted Magic Show in all villages

THINGS THAT WE FAILED TO DO:

• There were above 100 students who dropped out of school. Out of that we could enroll only 8 students.

• In some villages we could not organize women to give adult education.

• For some villages we didn’t get the village profile properly.

ABOUT SST

Srinivasan Service Trust started in the year 1996. In Tamilnadu it is working in five Districts namely

1. Chennai

2. Thiruvanamalai

3. Dharmapuri

4. Thirunelveli

5. Tuticorin

They are working on 5 heads

EDUCATION

INFRASTRUCTURE

Chairman - Sunil Joshi (Rtd IAS Officer)

Managing Director - Venugopal

Incharge at Padaivedu - Krishnan (Ex DFO)

Infrastructure Co-ordinator - Subhu

Community Development - Kamalakannan , Debo

Tribal Development - S. Ponn Vaidhiyanathan

They are main collaborated with the Government. For some Developmental Studies they will join with the University of Madras like Tribal Development and also Agricultural University at Coimbatore.

TRIBAL DEVELOPMENT

They work on Women’s Empowerment like forming Self-Help groups arranging loans for them. As a part of income generation they taught those people how to make household articles like bag, dustbin etc from palm leaves. They will sell these materials and give them monthly payment.