Berigai is a small Panchayat with a population of 7,500. The majority of the
population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. However, farming
yields a meagre income, a large number of families are not able to meet their
needs, and so they turn to their children to augment the family income.When I was elected President of the Panchayat for the first time, I decided
to ensure that no child in the Panchayat was deprived of education. To meet
this objective, we passed a resolution in the gram Sabha to eradicate child
labour from the Panchayat and re-enroll all the children in school. After the
resolution, we formed a Committee consisting of school headmasters and
village administrative officers, with the President of the Panchayat as its Head.
This committee inspects all hotels and shops in the vicinity once a month to
ensure that no child is employed as Labour. If any child is found working
there, the shopkeepers are issued with a warning, and the parents of the child
are contacted. We then enroll these children in the National Child Labour
School or any of the four schools in the Panchayat. Students enrolled in the
National Child Labour School are gradually shifted to regular schools. So far,
41 of the 60 children admitted to the National Child Labour School have
joined regular schools.I have also tried to persuade the District Collector at the District level meetings
to issue an order to the concerned officials to distribute rations only on the
condition that families with children have to prove that their children have a
minimum of 75 percent attendance in school.To ensure holistic development of my Panchayat, I have been working to
address the sanitation needs of the Panchayat. I have been encouraging each
household in the Panchayat to avail of the government sponsored sanitation
schemes. We also organize street plays and cultural programmes to spread
awareness. I visit each household to inspect the construction of toilets and
permission to build a home is granted on the condition that it will be built
with a toilet. I am proud to say that due to all these efforts, on May 4 2007,
the Panchayat received the prestigious Nirmal gram Award.Baby Rajaramani
President
Panchayat: Berigai
Block: Soolagiri
District: Krishnagiri