Pupils of more than 30 well-known English medium schools have been engaged in a survey to create awareness among schoolchildren regarding child labour and find out the number of children working as domestic help in well-to-do families in Calcutta. This initiative of involving schoolchildren in collecting data for the survey is the brainchild of Sister Cyril, principal of Loreto Day School, presently carrying out several other projects for providing educational facilities for destitute children of the city. The survey is part of an ongoing UK government study conducted by nearly 50 city-based non-government organisations (NGOs) to locate the number of children deprived of primary education in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation area. The study has found that there is no facility for free primary education for more than 140,000 children in the age group of three to nine years in the city. The project, though conducted by the NGOs, is sponsored and supported by the state government and the Centre. Sister Cyril, who has been working for the uplift of destitute children for over two decades, recently approached 30 Christian missionary and private English medium schools in the city. She requested the heads of these schools to ask each pupil to collect data for the survey. At first, the schools are advised to find out from each of their pupils if they have any domestic help at their homes belonging to the age group of nine to 14 years. Then the students are asked to find out how many of their neighbours or relatives have domestic help belonging to the same age group. Then pupils are asked if they could locate minor children doing any kind of work in their locality. The students are being provided with a sheet of paper on which they are just required to fill in the number of child labourers they can locate and the address where they had been located. Finally, the data will be collected from the schools and compiled. So far, the pupils have located 4,751 child labourers in the city, Sister Cyril said. The figure came in from 79 of the 141 wards of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. ?There are two advantages in engaging schoolchildren in the survey,? says Sister Cyril. First, the process helps data collection in an easy and economical way. According to Sister Cyril, the NGOs are carrying out studies in the slums and industrial areas to find out the number of child labourers in these areas. It was not always possible for the NGOs to find out how many children are actually engaged in different kind of jobs in the residential areas. The purpose of engaging the schoolchlidren in the survey is to find out these hidden figures, the Sister said. Second, ?the best way we can eradicate child labour is by creating an awareness among children coming from well-off families. I wanted the children to be involved in the survey so that they can understand the problem and do not encourage domestic child labour and avoid engaging children at their homes when they grow up.? Since the Anglo-Indian Schools cater to the upper middle class and a large section of middle class, the Sister hoped that the rate of domestic child labour could be reduced considerably if awareness was created among students coming from such families. The Sister said most of the schools have already started the process and the response from the students had been ?very good.? Some of the schools who have already submitted their reports are Calcutta Boys?, St James?, Sealdah Loreto, Bowbazar Loreto and Loreto House. The other schoools are likely to submit their reports after the puja vacation. ?The children are collecting the datas with great enthusiasm and care. Every child has been asked to collect the information confidentially. And they are doing it exactly how they have been asked to do,? said the Sister. After completion of the survey the report will be submitted to the state government.