Present Sir! HM's breakfast initiative a hit in Thenpalli aided school

•THARIAN MATHEW

VELLORE: The 103-year-old government-aided Madras Diocese (MD) Primary School at Thenpalli, nearly 20 kilometres from Vellore on the Katpadi-Vallimalai road, reported total attendance last Thursday when a social worker and the school headmaster started serving breakfast for children on their own, sources said.

“I was approached by the school headmaster Sridhar, and asked if I would support his move to provide free breakfast for the 63 students. This was based on requests by parents -- working as agricultural labourers -- mostly belonging to the SC/ST community who bemoaned that their wards were denied the benefit of the breakfast scheme just because they were studying in an aided school,” said social activist Dinesh Saravanan.

This resulted in a meeting with the parents who promised full cooperation following which three mothers were engaged to cook for the students at a monthly wage of Rs 1,000.

Sridhar and Dinesh then found that it cost Rs 1,000 per day to provide breakfast to the school students. The items finalised include ‘rava uppuma’, ‘rice rava uppuma’, ‘semia uppuma’, ‘pongal’ and ‘kichadi sambar’. While Sridhar had his own supporters contributing to the ‘scheme’ Dinesh found nearly 10 persons volunteering to join their efforts by opting to provide breakfast for at least three days per person.

The scheme started last Thursday and once word spread, the school reported total attendance.

“Earlier, out of the 63 students, nominal attendance would be around 40, while some students might also come late. But once the scheme became operational all 63 students turned up by 8.15 am,” said a teacher preferring not to be named.

While Dinesh said they would continue the scheme till the State government also included aided schools, he also appealed to the government to consider the needs of poor students in such schools.

“The scheme has provided relief to parents as they can now go to work realising that their children will be fed while they could subsist on rice gruel (kanji),” Dinesh adde