Dooars Tea Kids get help from United Kingdom

Alipurduar: To Sudipto Sarkar, New Land Tea Estate was second home.

A software engineer based in London, Sarkar feels it is time now for him to give back to the Dooars what it had once showered on him: lots of fun-filled days.

So when he saw articles on the starving garden children, Sarkar decided to do something that would bring back the smiles on their faces. He donated Rs 1 lakh. And the beneficiaries were the students of the closed and abandoned gardens. Incidentally, New Land, 65 km from here, is still open.

Sarkar’s maternal uncle, Kamal Gun said a few weeks ago the 35-year-old engineer had contacted him over phone from London. “He expressed the desire to do something specific and we picked on students who have passed this year’s Madhyamik and Higher Secondary examinations,” Gun said.

A clerk with the Birpara state general hospital, Gun said it took him only a few days to draw up a list of beneficiaries. “We concentrated on Ramjhora, Dheklapara, Kanthalguri, Red Bank and Chamurchi.”

Yesterday, at a programme organised at Birpara Mahabir Hindi High School, textbooks were distributed to 156 students who have passed Madhyamik this year and Rs 500 was given to each of the 18 students as admission fee for studying in colleges. The books and cash were handed over by Joachim Buxla, MP, Alipurduar and Kumari Kujur, the local MLA.

After the distribution Gun called his nephew last evening and told him that many more students needed help but could not be covered. “He said he will send more money soon,” Gun said.

Gun explained that Sarkar’s father was a senior engineer with ONGC and was posted in many different countries. “My sister Malati and her son Sudipto spent several years with us at New Land tea estate where our father was a clerk,” Gun said.

An impressed Buxla said: “This proves that the crisis in the tea industry has become an international issue. I thank the thoughtful youth on behalf of the benefactors.”

Source: The Telegraph

Tea Child excels in exam result

Tania Bakshi lives in a closed tea estate in the Dooars and studies in the light of oil-lamps, as there is no electricity in the staff quarters.

She has got 92.4 per cent marks in the recently published ICSE results.

Bipin Gossain lives in the same garden as Tania. His father is a labourer at Ramjhora tea estate, closed since August 2002. He has cleared ICSE with 72 per cent marks.

Sonu Chhetri, a classmate of Tania and Bipin at Sunshine School in Birpara, cycled 10-12km everyday to reach school from his house in the Nichey labour line of the closed Dheklapara tea estate. He has secured 87.8 per cent in ICSE.

Tania, Bipin and Sonu’s achievement comes at a time when children from the closed and abandoned tea estates of the Dooars are dropping out of schools unable to pay their fees.

Sunshine School has played no small part in helping such students. “Around 40 per cent of the 750 children who study in our school are from tea gardens. We give concessions to those coming from closed gardens, besides free books and additional classes,” said Kirtan Chhetri, the principal.

“Despite the school bus incurring a loss, we have kept it operational considering the problems of transportation faced by students from the tea estates,” Chhetri said.

Of the 41 students who appeared for ICSE exams this year, 16 were from different tea estates, said the principal, though only Tania, Bipin and Sonu were from closed gardens. All 41 cleared the exam, Chhetri added, The ICSE topper from the school, Suman Damai (93 per cent) is also from a tea estate, albeit an operational one. “He is from Hantapara on the outskirts of Birpara,” the principal said.

Tania has already taken admission in Holy Child School in Jalpaiguri with science subjects and plans to appear in the joint entrance examination in 2009. Like her, Sonu, too, wants to study science.

Source: The Telegraph

Tea Garden kids drop out of school

Jaigaon: Ratan Lohar, a father of four and a worker at the closed Bharnobari Tea Estate, does not know what to do about his children’s education.

On one hand, there is almost no work at the estate and consequently no wages. On the other, local schools have increased their annual fees to more than three times the figure fixed by the government.

“My two elder children stopped going to school last year,” says Lohar. “The younger ones have been promoted to Class V this time, but I don’t think I will be able to pay the fees to let them continue with their education.”

Lohar’s children are not alone. Students from closed and abandoned tea gardens of north Bengal are increasingly dropping out of schools and colleges because they cannot meet the expenses.

In Bharnobari alone, there are over 100 such students. “We have two schools in the vicinity, Hasimara Uchha-Madhyamik School and Hasimara Hindi High School,” said Krishna Baraik, a member of the operations and maintenance committee currently running the estate. “The annual fees at the schools are more than Rs 200 per student. We have had no work for the past fortnight, where will the families get the money from?”

Sudarshan Bhagat, also from Bharnobari, is a second-year arts student at Jaigaon Nani Bhattacharjee College. “Last year, I had to shell out Rs 2,000,” he says. “This year, with the garden closed, my family cannot afford to let me continue with my studies.”

The district inspector of schools (higher secondary), Mohim Payra, said the annual fee fixed by the government was Rs 63. “Schools can charge extra money from students under different heads but they should not do so from children of closed and abandoned tea gardens. I will definitely look into this,” Payra said.

The secretary of the governing body of Hasimara Uchha-madhyamik School, Tarun Bose, said the additional Rs 137 covered the cost of programmes like freshers’ welcome, Saraswati Puja and prize distribution and the salary of the night guard. “We have not taken any decision regarding the children from closed gardens,” Bose said.

Alipurduar subdivisional officer P.D. Pradhan said he had heard about the schools overcharging the students. “I have decided to convene a meeting with the school authorities in this regard,” Pradhan said.

The general secretary of the National Union of Plantation Workers, Prabhat Mukherjee, said there were more than 10,000 students in the 14 closed gardens in the Dooars. “I will draw the attention of the Bengal government to this problem of dropouts,” he said.

Source: The Telegraph

Guest at Makaibari teaching computer to tea kids

The home-stay project at Makaibari Tea Estate is helping the workers’ children with their education in school and outside it.

While workers use the extra money they earn from tourism to send their children to school, one guest has taken the efforts a step further. She is teaching computer application and English to the children outside school hours at her own cost.

Kathleen Linton, who hails from Adelaide, Australia, has been at the estate, located 3 km from here, for the past four weeks. “I was thinking of helping the poor in any part of the world. While surfing the Internet one day, I came across an organisation called i-to-i, which helps people like us do voluntary social work in different countries. From there I got to learn about this tea estate and decided to teach computer application and English to poor children here,” said the woman who works as freelancer on government-funded projects to build education websites in Australia.

For the first three weeks, Linton concentrated on English but last Tuesday she set up two personal computers at a small centre in the estate to teach the children the basics of Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel and a few other applications. She added that on an average, about 25 children from seven villages spread across the plantation come to her classes, which are held in the mornings and evenings.

Linton said she is also looking forward to working with the primary school teachers of the area to give them tips on teaching English and computer application.

“From my interaction with the children, I have come to know that they are very talented and able. They are good at reading and writing English but are weak in spoken English. I am working on it,” she added.

Linton’s project at Makaibari is self-funded. She plans to spend around 3,500 Australian dollars (around Rs 1.2 lakh) on it, including paying for her own food and accommodation as well as buying paper, pencils, pens, crayons and some English and computer books for the children.

Sewan Pradhan, a driver at Makaibari, said his son has joined Linton’s course. “He is in Class VI and he had never even seen a computer till he joined the course,” he said. “It is good that such a project is being held at the estate because we cannot afford to send our children to private computer institutes in Kurseong.”

Source: The Telegraph