Soraiyahat (Dumka), June 10: The work rosters of 10-year-old Basant Tuddu and his sister Sonamani have changed. Once engaged as domestic helps in an affluent household in Kadiya village, the kids now have time at their disposal.

But instead of playing with other children, the brother-sister duo has started attending the Child Labour School (CLS) in the village.

The change in the menu of the midday meal scheme has started attracting rural children to child labour schools run by the district administration in the remote Soraiyahat block in Dumka.

Like Basant and Sonamani, many children have recently enrolled in the child labour schools, automatically increasing the student strength.

Many of these schools have been lying defunct for the past few years.

Block officials realised that mere khitchri was not enough to lure the children to schools. So they decided to include eggs, groundnuts and bananas in addition to khitchri on the menu. Beside food, students will also get Rs 100 as stipend.

In a comprehensive plan to more educate child labourers between the age group of 6 to 14 years, the schools have decided to distribute food items free of cost to students.

Raneshwar unit of the Bharat Savashram Sangha (BSS) — a voluntary organisation — has come forward to help the child labour schools by augmenting the mid-day meal spread.

Located nearly 23 km from the district headquarters, the tribal-dominated Soraiyahat block presents a picture of poverty.

More than 87 per cent of the population living below the poverty line are agricultural labourers and daily wage-earners.

According to a survey conducted by Priya, a Delhi-based NGO, like many other blocks in the district, Soraiyahat also has the maximum number of child labourers.

The children are driven by poverty to earn their living from a tender age.

The district administration allotted 12 schools in the block with two teachers (one male and female), one commercial training teacher and one peon. But the lack of proper environment for learning and widespread poverty elicited a poor response.

“The school dropout rate is rising as most children work to support their families,” said the block development officer, Soraiyahat.

Earlier 100 gm of rice, 20 gm of dal and green vegetables were provided to each student in the schools. The quota was subsequently increased to 125 gm rice, 25 gm dal and khitchri prepared with soyabeans.

“Besides, groundnuts, eggs, soyabeans and bananas are now included in the new menu. Since malnutrition is a silent feature in the area and majority of the children has been found with symptoms of different diseases, we decided to provide them free meals with high calorie-content,” a BSS spokesperson said.