Imagine a school spread over 3.5 acres, modeled on the lines of premier private schools like Delhi Public School and Jawahar Vidya Mandir, Shyamali. With buses that ferry kids to and from their doorsteps. A school that provides students with a healthy breakfast on arrival, and lunch before they are dropped back home. An English medium school run on the CBSE pattern, which offers medical checkups by a team of doctors from Central Hospital at Gandhinagar in Ranchi, and four sets of uniforms to each student.
Kayakalp Public School, at Bukru on the Ranchi-Patratu Road, about 20 km from the city, delivers all this, for free. But there’s one big difference between this school and the others. The students are mostly the children of destitute parents or beggars.
In a unique initiative to make Ranchi a beggar-free city, Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) has launched this school as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project.
The School now has 30 children aged between 5- 8, selected from the adjoining villages. Six of them are from Indira Nagar Beggars Colony in Dhurwa. The children are admitted after recommendations made by a three member committee of CCL officials, tasked with verifying whether the children are actually are destitute or not.
"We want Ranchi to make a beggar - free city having no child beggars in it. If any beggar kid is spotted anywhere in the city, you just need to give his or her address to us. We already have a school for them where they can get quality education free of cost," said CCL Chairman cum Managing Director Gopal Singh.
According to Singh, these 30 children have seen a huge difference in their outlook towards life since they were admitted on January 15 this year. "Now, the children admitted here have developed understanding of things and have also started receiving formal education," he said. Promising world class infrastructure and facilities, Singh said that there would be no compromise with the quality of teaching, and the objective was to create good human beings who can play active role in nation-building.
Apart from coaching and other assistance for various competitive examinations, students will also receive technical and skill development training when they reach class 9, to give them an edge in the competitive world.
Many qualified and experienced officers and retired teachers have volunteered to help, but presently the former Principal of St. Paul’s School in Ranchi S Gaekward and another lady Rajeshwari have been teaching the children in School free of cost.
