THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There are at least a dozen schools in and around Karimadom colony, right in the middle of the city. But the children here, especially boys, have no liking to education as such. A survey undertaken by Kudumbashree in 2010 among the 2,165 families in the colony revealed that only 23 girls (and no boys) who completed school went on to do higher studies. The baseline survey covered 509 families in the colony and was carried out by Kudumbashree members with the help of college-going students there. Sajith Sukumaran, the consultant who was roped in by COSTFORD, the implementing agency of the slum improvement project in the colony, to lead the survey, shared the details of the survey at the Laurie Baker commemoration and seminar on ‘Comprehensive development of Karimadom’ organised alongside on Friday. According to the survey, 214 girls and 212 boys went to schools from the colony. Of them, only 28 girls and 19 boys had made it to Plus-one. And in 2010, there were only 23 college-goers, all girls, from the colony. ‘’The parents in Karimadom have never felt the need to give a space to children to sit and study. For them, houses are places to eat and sleep. Had they pushed the children a bit more to studies, they would have done much better in their lives,’’ Sajith said. The socio-economic survey further found that nearly 157 families among the 509 were headed by women. Nearly 41 families had women in their 40s and 14 families had women in their 30s as their heads. Around 75 per cent of the men were engaged in daily wage work in Chalai and most of them were headload workers. Women were engaged in micro enterprises or worked as domestic helps. There were 49 autorickshaw drivers in the colony, 16 people who ran eateries (‘thattu kadas’), 10 families engaged in tailoring and ten government employees. Viral fever with joint pain was found to be common among the women, while diabetes, asthma, filariasis and anaemia were also common. There were nine cancer patients in the colony at the time of the survey. For 1,013 males, there were 1,152 females in the colony. ‘’There is too much money revolving in the colony by way of loans, debts and other sources. The people here are less bothered about rising debts. Which is why they do not take to the idea of starting micro enterprises and earn their living,’’ Sajith said. The slum improvement project under Basic Service to Urban Poor (BSUP) project is now moving at a snail’s pace with the second phase of the project caught in technical snags. COSTFORD Joint Director P B Sajan said at the meeting that the last two years have seen many technical and other problems arising in connection with the project. It was also to give the message that a good living space is part of the prospects of a better life that the seminar was organised. The meeting was attended by COSTFORD Chairman K P Kannan, Laurie Baker’s friend Geetha Narayanan, Mayor K Chandrika and Deputy Mayor G Happykumar, among others.
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