Madurai Ramnad

Satchiyapuram, a small village near Sivakasi (a place very well known for its manufactiring of fire works and crackers) and Manamadurai in Tamil Nadu was an interesting experience of learning. The experience I gained reflect the realities present in rural communities of India.
At Satchiapuram I visited 2 Projects one for children who are hard of hearing and the other for children who are intellectually impaired. These children were blessed as the place offers emmence job opportunities in small scale industries, mainly dealing with making of fire crackers. Though it sounds to be an hazardous industry the job is split into various smaller jobs in order to make the production more significant. Hence the children are not placed in factories where the actual gunpowder and other chemicals are used, but instead placed in factories where the mold is made for the filling of chemicals.

Nevertheless, both the Projects are doing well in identifying, intervening in the therapy while offering holistic education, pre-vocational training and integration to children. During the visit all matters regarding the Programme Implementation and the related challenges being faced was discussed. Thereafter I moved on to Manamadurai where I visited another Project, serving children with hearing impairment. This visit also taught me a lot of interesting things. As compared to the job prospects available at Satchiapuram, the main vocation being taught here is tailoring, as the demand for tailors is more towrds Madurai. Another interesting finding was that the income from local resouces was poor in Manamadurai and rich in Satchiapuram. This is due to the fact that there are more idustrialists who own factories near Sivakasi than in Manamadurai.

All in all, though I did feel a little strange towards the extremes of hospitality shown to me during the visit, it taught me a lot of important things realted to indicators for monitoring and evaluating. The children seemed so active and noughty and the class so lively without a word being spoken, it was all their movement of hands. Even in such moments of communication they know that they are able to convey their message across and this they do with great concentration. It was a delight to learn that deaf children had very little knowledge of what is wrong. And that they often misguided people by falsly complaining on others who did not agree on certain matters.

It was also found that children had very less memory power, mainly due to their lack of listening skills, thus not knowing how to pronounce. This effects their ability to feel the subjects. And I leave this post with a deep thirst of visiting these children again and to learn about their success in all their endeavours.