Elite schools lend campuses to poor children

Every noon a merry bunch of children from low-income colonies of Jamshedpur cross the Subernarekha in a boat to study at the elite Carmel Junior College. They get dedicated teachers, books and a clean campus without paying exorbitant fees. Some even get vocational training. Five private schools in Jamshedpur have opened up their campus to 8,000 underprivileged children after a little persuasion by the East Singhbhum Jharkhand Education Project (jep).
Just a couple of years ago these children would loiter around in their bastis the whole day, occasionally attending the government schools. Even jep did not foresee that it would bring about a turnaround on this scale when in 2004 it proposed an evening school for underprivileged children at Jesuit-run Loyola School because of the paucity of land and soaring prices of raising infrastructure in the posh city. jep