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Summer camps engage kids, keep them out of trouble
In areas such as Kannagi Nagar, which has one of the highest number of repeat offenders, parents are mostly daily wage earners who leave the children by themselves. These camps offer to train kids in soft skills, helping them to stay away from crime
By
migrator
migrator
Chennai
Until last year, most of the children could be seen flying kites during summer vacation in Kannagi Nagar. But cut to 2018, the situation is different with students participating in professional training sessions in sports like football, volleyball, carrom and kabbai, apart from getting trained in computer and soft skills, all because of an initiative taken by the city police in collaboration with corporates and NGOs.
Kannagi Nagar is one of the largest slum resettlement areas in the country with over 1.5 lakh people living in 26,000 hutments.
With daily wage jobs like construction being the major livelihood means, the parents end up spending their entire day at work and travel, while the children are left to fend for themselves.
Kannagi Nagar, being infamous for having one of the highest number of recorded history-sheeters in the locality and frequent ganja seizure, the police’s major concern was to prevent the children from choosing the criminal path.
The best option was to divert their attention to sports. Though police started enrolling children in their boys’ club to train them in sports like football, volleyball, carrom with the help of HCL foundation, now they have gone beyond the boys’ club to gift the local children cricket bats and balls and other sports equipment to with the help of sponsors.
“While the strength of the boys’ club is 200, the actual number of students getting trained is much more as we don’t restrict the enthusiastic kids,” said inspector N Sivakumar. He said at least 10 boys visit the police station every day to get cricket bats, while girls are given skipping ropes.
“There were the same kids who used to run away after seeing the police vehicle, but not anymore,” Sivakumar said. With the introduction of computer classes in air-conditioned class room at the boys’ club, its strength is only growing.
“The English coaching will get over this week and the students will be provided with a certificate. There are eager learners and some already try to converse in English,” said the inspector, who says these kids need continuous motivation to keep learning due to their abysmal background. The next challenge for police now is to identify the school dropouts with the beginning of the next academic session.
“We have also come up with coaching for young women in Kannagi Nagar in tailoring as well as car driving in collaboration with Maruti as there is huge demand for women drivers. The training will begin soon. If we keep the youngsters engaged, half the crime is prevented,” said inspector Easwaran.
‘There is immense talent among kids which needs support’
Summer vacations are not always about fun and games. For parents from Kannagi Nagar, this part of the year is fraught with worries – that their wards will get into an altercation with the others, with time hanging heavily on their hands.
A month-long summer camp, focussing on art, music, spoken English and story-telling, has been keeping the children engaged during the summer holidays, resulting in a fruitful vacation time.
Six years ago, professor Kaustav Sengupta and his wife Shashwati, who run the InkLink Charitable Trust, started working with the children from Kannagi Nagar during the weekends – to provide all children with the Right to Creative Education – a concept that he has been assiduously promoting here.
“We work in areas of urban conflict – like Kannagi Nagar and Semmencherry – where we conduct art, spoken English and music and story telling sessions for the children around the year. During summer, we have conducted a month-long summer camp, keeping them out of trouble,” said Sengupta.
The team works closely with the parents, themselves hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds, helping build communication with their wards. Parents’ collaboration is vital, said Sengupta, a design educator and award-winning academician.
“There is immense talent among the children, which needs mentoring and support. We also work with parents, ensuring a conducive atmosphere at home. For instance, we had a model-making workshop, where the children many small toys and gifted it to their mother, to mark Mother’s Day,” he said.
“We are trying to build a relationship between the child and parents. While weekend creative education sessions are held for the children, while monthly counselling sessions are conducted for the parents,” added Sengupta.
During their six-year long journey, the professor has many heart-warming stories about the children. “We have been working with 10-year-old Santhosh, a child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), for the past four years.
Because of this, he was picking up fights with children in school. He started attending the art classes and today, he can speak English and is representing his school in art competitions.
Now, he shows us the “star” marks that the teachers give him for his drawing,” said the beaming mentor. The trust also facilitates education scholarship for 30 school children as well as art scholarships for those who show talent in this area.
In a week, the summer camp will conclude with an exhibition of the children’s art – for the parents to appreciate their wards’ talent.
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