Slum children at Arya Samaj Mandir in Sindri on Thursday. Pix: Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, April 30: Students by day, teachers by evening.

That is the role the students of Birsa Institute of Technology, (BIT), Sindri, are currently playing.

Seventy students of the prestigious institute have started a school, Prayas, to provide free education to the slum children of Sindri. Classes are held at the verandah of Arya Samaj temple from Monday to Saturday from 5pm to 6pm.

The school was started more than a year ago by just 15 like-minded BITians with an aim to spread knowledge in the backward colonies of Tasra and Rodha Bandh, which bore the major brunt of the closure of Fertilizer Corporation of India. Gradually, the number of volunteers swelled to 70. Initially, there were just 30 children on the rolls. Now, more than 110 children come to study at the school.

Asked what drove them to embark on such a unique project, Chandan Kumar, a final-year mining engineering student of the institute, said: “We were inspired by the Kartavya group of Indian School of Mines University. The group runs a number of schools at several places.”

Free study material such as books, exercise copies and pencils are provided to the most needy children of Prayas. Besides regular classes, sports and cultural events are also held regularly to hone artistic and sporting skills of the children.

The BITians also provide coaching to several children of the slums to help them clear the entrance exams of polytechnic institutes and Navodaya Vidyalaya.

About the source of funds, Anand Kumar, a second-year mining engineering student of BIT and also the co-ordinator of Prayas, said: “We collect newspapers from all the hostels of our institute and sell them at the market.”