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 Bhagyalakshmi's father is a railway binder and her mother, a housewife. It seemed as if her life was going to stagnate after she finished her plus-two with her helping out her mother in their house at Tirumullaivayal. That was before September 2001 when she heard about a social service organisation that was giving free coaching in computer to girls who had been through school.
Bhagyalakshmi completed the six-month course for diploma in computer application and DTP and was equipped with a smattering of conversational English through the spoken English classes conducted by the
organisation.
She used to be scared even to travel alone by bus, but now walks with a spring in her step and looks confident enough to handle half-a-dozen people after attending their self-awareness classes.
A girl who thought her studies would end with school final, she is now doing BBA through correspondence and, if her family agrees, will do MBA!
Vijayakumari of Aminjikarai has an even more interesting story. She joined the home nursing course run by the organisation and passed out with 82 per cent marks. Her husband works in the postal department and she was finding it difficult to make both ends meet.
She was trained in the four-month course for which the organisation paid her a stipend of Rs 250. After the classroom training, she underwent practical training at the Sundaram Medical Foundation and did hands-on nursing at an old age home.
At the end of the whole exercise, she took a test at Sundaram Medical Foundation and came out in flying colours. She is awaiting a certificate as a qualified home nurse and a placement that the organisation does not find hard to provide.
This is how the life of a school dropout or a girl who has completed school can change if she is given the right direction. This is one segment of society that has not attracted the attention of the government and most NGOs. They are mostly worried about the poor, those living on the roads, orphans, old people but not young girls coming out of school and still facing a bleak future.
Corporate leader M K Kumar (one of the many posts he has held being that of the chairman of Shaw Wallace) identified this segment and launched the Association for Non-Traditional Employment for Women - ANEW - with a handful of friends like Anu Chandran, Vatsala Ramakrishnan and retired professor
Parvathi.
ANEW, which is actively involved in charting a new future for these girls/women who are brilliant and yet cannot afford to do higher studies, started out of a garage in Anna Nagar in 1997 with 2-3 girls
Anu Chandran, a committee member, said it was very difficult to convince the families to let their girls join the courses. There were frequent dropouts.
 ANEW manager V Subbiyan, who also conducts the self-awareness class, said then they approached corporation schools and distributed handbills to tell people about their work. News also spread by word of mouth.
The computer centre has turned out 111 DCA-trained girls, of whom 72 have found work. They earn anything from Rs 1,200 to Rs 4,000, which makes all the difference between life and suffering for many of these girls who come from poor backgrounds.
Preethi, the dynamic computer teacher, has nothing but praise for these girls who are taught software packages and multimedia. The two sessions run simultaneously and Preethi finds the girls talented, versatile and very interested in what they are taught. "It is the students who give me encouragement to run this course," she says, her eyes sparkling earnestly.
Bhagyalakshmi, who trained under her, is now part of the faculty.
About 125 girls/women have completed the home nursing course and 95 of them have found placement. Mary Stella, who is in-charge of the course, says they are unable to keep pace with the demand as they ensure that the girls are fully trained before they are sent on assignments.
The girls are trained in all aspects of nursing to which baby care has been added. Though ANEW finds them a placement, the payment, of Rs 85 per day for day duty and Rs 125 for night duty, is made directly to the nurses.
The girls are not only taught how to make a living but also to be economically independent. They are familiarised with the functioning of the bank and post-office and must have a bank account once they start earning.
ANEW is ready with the next scheme for educated girls: teaching autorickshaw and two-wheeler mechanism. It hopes that women's colleges will come forward to let trained girl mechanics open shops inside the colleges what with so many girls riding two-wheelers these days. Khivraj Automobiles is also ready to train and absorb them in its organisation. As with any new idea, there is a paucity of takers.
 It is not easy to run the organisation on charity with overheads of Rs 60,000 every month, says Anu Chandran. So ANEW is making preparations to hold a charity play by noted dramatist and comedian Crazy Mohan at Narada Gana Sabha on August 17.
The 100 per cent charity organisation gets funds from Friends of ANEW in New York with matching funds through donations. The main donor is Wellington Trust, and the computers were donated by a number of
corporates.
Preethis' comment, "We are turning out happy people," is believable as the small flat ANEW operates from in Anna Nagar echoes with the cheerful voices of the girls and their faculty. But they definitely need help to keep the spirit up.
S Chitra
ANEW can be contacted over
phone number 6210492
at 3362/A2, 8th Street, AE
Block, Anna Nagar, Chennai - 600 040.
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