The Jamshedpur Public School students who conducted the survey on child rights. Pix: Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Nov. 18: Even before the Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) made it mandatory for all CBSE-affiliated schools to make their students “pledge twice” against child labour during assembly hours, Jamshedpur Public School had started to take steps to curb the social evil.

“Though the board has asked all schools to take a pledge in their school to root out the problem, we believe that only a pledge would not make a difference. Therefore, we have decided to work in the grassroots and fight the evil with students. Young people would understand what ails other youngsters the best,” said Lalita Sareen, the principal of the Jamshedpur Public School.

For the grassroots programme, a team of four Class XII senior students — Dhruv Prakash, Ruhi Ganguly, Rohit Bhattacharya and Diksha Singh — have been visiting some 32 households in the slums of Cable Town area and Baridih Basti for a survey and an awareness programme.

Their survey stresses mainly on collecting data on four major factors — the economic condition of the families, the level of education of the parents and children, access to immunisation and the availability of drinking water in the area.

“The issue of child labour is not a linear one, there is not a single solution to the problem. One cannot ask a child, who might be the family’s breadwinner or a working member, to just stop working and start studying, because no one would heed such words.

Therefore, we try to make children and their parents understand that literacy opens more avenues to a more respectable life,” said Sareen.

The four senior students are now spending a lot of time after school hours to conduct the programme.

The school also recently conducted a health seminar for the slum children.

“We do teach the children in our free time, but the major thrust of the programme is to being in people from various spheres together, and make them guide the children to a better life,” said Dhruv Prakash, a senior science student of the Jamshedpur Public School.