Families in many villages of the district find it more lucrative to send their school-going children to farms for plucking chilli or cotton, which fetches them ₹9,000 a month in the harvesting season. As it directly impacts their attendance in the school, they could lose ‘Amma Vodi’ scheme benefits with the State government making 75% attendance compulsory.
Schools in interior villages and on the border with Karnataka are the ones that witness such practices. About 20% out of the 565 children enrolled in Havaligi K.S.Z.P. High School do not attend classes for various reasons (on record) but the majority are sent to work at some place or other. All of them are persuaded by the headmaster and teachers during interaction with parents to ensure 75% attendance to claim the Amma Vodi benefits but to no avail, says CPI(M) district secretary V. Rambhupal, who visited many schools in the Vidapanakal mandal. “During our Rythu Coolie Rakshana Padayatra now under way till December 18, we could witness a number of children working in the fields as it is the harvesting season,” Mr. Rambhupal says.
At Krishtipadu in Peddavadagur mandal a whole family has been working in a cotton field. Giving the reason for the children not going to school, the family head Thippeswamy says he has a contract with the farmer to pluck cotton, pack it in gunny bags and carry it to a lorry nearby, which fetches them ₹17 a kg and that works out to ₹400 per person in the family for an 11-day work.
Priority to boys
Further, it is mostly girls who are seen working in fields. They say they are sent for work as they do not get Amma Vodi since their brothers are enrolled in the scheme by their parents as only one child gets the benefit as per the government norms.
At Bestarapalli in Kundurpi mandal on the A.P.-Karnataka border, 213 students are enrolled from classes 6 to 10 and out of them 180 get Amma Vodi benefits. Twenty out of 33 others who are not getting the scheme benefit have been absent for various reasons ranging from ill-health to being disabled, while 13 others have been absent for a very long time as the families have migrated to Bangalore or some other town for work.
In contrast, at Reddipalli panchayat in Bukkarayasamudram mandal, 15 km from Anantapur town, all 629 students in various schools of the village have above 75% attendance and none loses out under the scheme. Panchayat secretary Thumpera Reddamma, however, says with the announcement of the attendance norm, parents are ensuring that children attended school for the past 15 days.
