Dharwad :
Karnataka Vikas Grameena Bank which covers nine districts of north and coastal Karnataka has come up with a scheme to attract students to school in association with Selco Solar Company, under a programme called “Light for Education”, which is being implemented in a few government schools.
According to a study, about ten percent of the children who go to government primary schools do not have electric lights in their homes. It is more so among the nomadic tribes, who go from place to place. It is their children who suffer the most as they are forced to read in the dim light of an oil or kerosene lamp. This nips most of their aspirations and creativity in the bud.
“Not only that, using kerosene lamps is dangerous as well, as we have heard of incidents of lamps falling on dozing children leading to fatal accidents. It is in this background that the bank has decided to help students with safe lights,” said KVGB chairman Sambasiva Reddy.
Under the programme, 50 students are identified and given solar lamps. The importance of this programme is that the batteries of these lamps can be charged only at the school where charging unit will be placed. The unit is a large one which can charge up to twenty five batteries at a time. Since the lamps can be charged at the school, children who use the lamps should necessarily come to school for charging. Lamps are made of good quality but since it cannot be charged independently, there can be no malpractice and it cannot be sold by unscrupulous persons and even by drunken parents. The lamps will be given to children studying in fourth standard and they can use it till they complete their seventh standard.
The Bank and Selco Solar Company have cast a responsibility on the school to maintain the solar charging panel and to keep track of the fifty solar lamps given to their students. The lamp and the solar panel will be serviced by Selco Solar Company.
The first beneficiary under the said scheme is the Government Kannada Primary School No.7, situated on Savadatti Road, Dharwad which has sheltered only students of poor background.
source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / Home> City> Hubli / by Gururaj Jamkhandi, TNN / March 31st, 2013