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But M Nagarajan now practises Rajaji’s philosophy. A class-X student of Nungambakkam Boys Higher Secondary School, Chennai, he spends his night cleaning the hoardings in the metropolis.
His father Muthu Kanna is a painter and his mother Valli is a housewife. Nagarajan has an older sister who is doing a nursing course in a government college. Nagarajan is picked up daily from home at 11 p.m. in an autorickshaw to work in different parts of the city and dropped back around 5 a.m. the next day. He hardly sleeps for two-three hours in the morning because he has to catch a bus from Anna Nagar, where he lives, to rush to his school in Nungambakkam.
They had been asked by the contractor to clean the tiles which were smeared with tar. LIC, which maintains the divider, has entrusted the task of cleaning the tiles to the contractor under whom these boys work. How does Nagarajan find the time and energy to juggle his studies and work? When does he sleep? He says he goes to bed as soon as he finishes work in the morning and again for two-three hours after he comes back from school. He spends the rest of the time in the evening studying. Nagarajan says he is used to the routine as he has been studying and working from class-VI. It is only for the past one-and-a-half years that he has been working at night.
Will he not be able to do better in school if he did not have to work at night? “I am working because of the poverty at home. I am forced to work at night. I earn Rs 2,600 per month but even this is not enough to pay the fees for my sister, the rent for the house and run the home.” While this is the condition of Nagarajan, Sriram, the autorcikshaw driver who picks up these boys to work in the night, is shouldering heavier responsibilities. He was in deep sleep, slouching against divider at Mount Road, while the boys were busy working. Sriram, like Nagarajan, has been paid for bringing these boys to the workspot, supervise their work and drop them at their homes after work.
Sriram dropped out of college while doing graduation because his family could not afford to support him. In fact, they need his support. His father is bedridden, he has two sisters old enough to be married and one of them is handicapped. He earns around Rs 6,000 per month. But being the only breadwinner of the family, he is not able to save much. “Though I work night and day, I have not been able to save even a single paisa as dowry for my sisters,” says Sriram sadly. Nagarajan and Sriram are learning all about life – the hard way. A Alimudeen
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Copyright
2010, Chennai Interactive
Business Services (P) Ltd. |
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Keeping in mind that the idea would help poor students in future, former Tamil Nadu chief minister Rajaji exhorted the student community to concentrate on studies as well as learn a vocation and called the project the ‘Kulakkalvi Thittam’. But the idea drew flak from various quarters, especially from the Dravidian parties, that Rajaji was trying to promote casteism and
‘Varnashrama’.
Nagarajan was last seen working along with three other boys, also belonging to poor families but not going to school, cleaning the tiles on the divider at Mount Road, opposite LIC, with rags soaked in petrol, around midnight.
When asked about the board exam he has to write this year, Nagarajan says he has scored good marks in the exams conducted by the school so far.
During the day, he drives for officials of a government organisation. He too hardly sleeps for three-four hours a day: sometimes he just curls up inside the car while his customers are away.
