Former child labourer turns saviour for many

Hyderabad: Having endured a hard labour life in childhood itself, a city man is on a mission to better the lives of unfortunate as well as underprivileged children, not only in urban or rural areas but also in remote areas of tribal populace. Children are the future of the society but there are thousands, especially in tribal areas, who are neglected and in need of help, B Santhosh says. The founder of 'People Helping Children' is grateful to officials for rescuing from hard labour in Karimnagar. His gruelling times always kept lingering in mind as he grew up. Moved by the plight of thousands of children toiling in harsh and hazardous units, he started the NGO and works in collaboration with child welfare and labour departments to rescue them.

Speaking to The Hans India, B Santosh, founder of People Helping Children, Chikkadpally said, "When I was in ninth class I was forced to work in hazardous industry as a child labourer to support my family but later I was rescued by the government officials at Karimnagar. So whatever I faced in my childhood, I don't want any other child to go through the same. So in the year 2018 I started the NGO with the motto of giving them access to basic rights such as food, nutrition, health , child safety and security."

The NGO mainly focuses on tribal and rural children, as they lack access to basic education. He established three learning centers in the remote tribal hamlet villages of Mulugu district where children are taught up to Class 5. Thereafter, they move over to government-run ashram or residential schools. The NGO even adopted a village Pittalagudem in Telangana and meets the needs of children in education, health and nutrition segments.

Santhosh says around 25,000 were provided with school bags, books and other stationery items. Scores of children are also rescued from chiild labour, by partnering with Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA) in Hyderabad. Not only that, the government took his help in carrying out awareness on child hlepline through a bike yara by 10 motorists covering 2,832 km in the Telangana State.

The NGO is now promoting awareness among tribal communities regarding menstrual cycle and hygiene. It is helping tribal girls with sanitary pads and has so far distributed more than 25,000 sanitary napkins.

"For the past two years the NGO has been supporting tribal and rural children in two Telugu States. We recently extended our support in other states i.e., Odisha, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. There are around 118 active members and with 1000 plus volunteers visiting various tribal areas and with the help of crowd funding we are able to support the children," adds Santosh.