In A bid to get its child labourers and drop-outs back to school, Krishnagiri, one of the most backward districts in Tamil Nadu, has launched a unique effort, using ingenuous software. It helps the District Collector keep track of every student here.

Every time a child, even from the remotest village, fails to turn up in class, a red signal pops up on the Collector’s computer. The panchayat concerned is alerted and the child is brought back to school after ascertaining the problems which made him a drop out. The software ‘back2school’ has helped the district administration put 7,600 of the 8,867 drop-outs tracked so far back in schools.

The effort involves 337 Village Volunteer Force (VVF) members, child volunteers, panchayat presidents and headmasters of the 1,700-odd schools in the district. Representatives of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and the UNICEF have also pitched in as part of the national child labour prevention project. “The VVF members visit the schools once a month and collect data about students missing from the classroom. The volunteers are picked from the same village so he or she is familiar about the child’s history. They find out the reason why the child has not attended class and help resolve the problem,” Krishnagiri District Collector Santosh Babu said, adding “we hope to achieve 100 per cent attendance by next year”.

Collecting data had proved a massive task with VVF and SSA members who had to locate every child labour from the district. “The software comprises not just the history of each school-going child below 14 years, who had dropped out, but also links all the departments concerned like the Tahsildar's office, the district police and administration, particularly the revenue officer,” said B Veeraputhiran, managing director of Arbiter Infotech Pvt Ltd, who helped conceive the software.

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