BENGALURU: In the dusty back lanes, set away from the centre of Bengaluru is a sprawling residential school for children that houses Sri Lankan refugees.
This is the Indira Gandhi International School in Yelahanka that over 200 children between the ages of six and 19 years call home.
About one hundred girls and 110 boys, drawn from refugee camps in Tamil Nadu, study here.
The school run by Bright Society maintains itself on donations and charity by Rotarians and philanthropists.
For five days a week, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness sends lunch to the children.
"Organising breakfast and dinner is a huge task. Our average daily expense is Rs 5,000 including teachers' salary but we don't even get half of the money. We have only seven teachers because we can't afford higher salaries. Some of the former students of the school, who still live here, help children with their studies and there are some volunteers, who come in now and then to help," says Kokila Vani, in-charge of the school.
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| Sri Lankan refugee children at the school. Pic by R.Samuel. Deccan Herald |
Kokila, 26, is originally from Kilinochchi. She came to the school in 1992 from a refugee camp in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu and stayed back.
The school, established in 1990 is on shaky ground. It has been 'stealing' electricity after the Bescom disconnected their electricity connection following an unpaid bill of Rs 10 lakh.
"We take electricity illegally. There's no option. We have spoken to a local politician; he said he would look into it. He hasn't done anything so far.
"There's only one text-book for one subject in each class and all the children share it.
There are 22 boys in private colleges, who have been forced to discontinue their studies after we failed to pay their fees; there's an outstanding amount of Rs 230,000 from the colleges," says Kokila.
Outside the office are children, young girls and boys lost in their own world.
You call some of them for a chat and the entire lot crowds you, eager to talk and get photographed.
With faces caked with mud, sunburn and curiosity, they shock you with the amount of information they have about 'Yalpanam' (Tamil name for Jaffna).
Ask them about Prabhakaran (LTTE chief) and they break into a smile and raise a cheer. "He is our hero. We wish we could help him; he is fighting for Tamil people," chant the whole lot in a chorus.
"We want to go back to our country and fight for Eelam. Whatever it takes we are willing to fight. In India we have no status," said Logeshwari from Kilinochchi.
"Rajpaksa (President Mahinda Rajpaksa) is not doing the right thing in attacking Eelam Tamils. We have a right to live in our country as equal citizens. The Sinhalese have taken away our land and livelihood. My parents had land; they had to leave everything behind and run," said Bhubaneshwari, a native of Mannar.
Pudikyadi from Vavuniya had stronger words.
"We hate them (the Sinhalese government). They are killing our people. We want to go back to our country even if it's dangerous; we don't mind dying. At least we will be in our homeland," she said.
They get their news feed from newspapers and the lone TV donated to the school.
"We follow the news and pray that nothing happens to Prabhakaran," said Dushyanti.
It's lunch hour; the smell of hot rice and sambhar draws the younger children to the dining hall.
Inside at the quadrangle there are little boys queuing up for food.
They look at you curiously and circle you to get into the photo frame.
Suddenly each of them finds a voice and drags your hand to put their names in.
Courtesy Deccan Chronicle
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