The Virudhunagar district in Tamil Nadu has taken an innovative step towards providing mentorship to the children living in various social welfare hostels of the district. The Tamil Nadu government had introduced two types of social welfare hostels that cater to the very low-income group of population. All school and college going students who fall in this category can stay in these hostels and study.
Now as a part of a routine, government officers have to inspect the hostels regularly and check whether everything is running fine or not. However, the District Collector of Virudhunagar, Mr. Meghanath Reddy said, “I thought that these random inspections won’t solve a bigger purpose and nothing tangible could be obtained out of it. Rather I thought of extending the duties of several officers ranging from the Collector to Tehsildar at the block level to have ownership of these hostels. This, I thought, would be more beneficial as we could make improvement in facilities as and when issues come up.”
THREE HOSTELS PER OFFICER
The initiative kicked off in the month of April this year. Earlier, the officers used to submit a report of a particular hostel after conducting random inspection. However, now the government officers have three hostels under their kitty which they have to take care of and see to it that children living there do not face any problem.
Mr. Reddy said, “When a government officer will enter the hostel and communicate with the children, it will by itself be inspirational for the children, and through this, they might get a good vision of what they have to do in future, too. Also, the officers will be looking after three hostels on a two-month rotation so that children get a chance to get mentorship from different officers.”
These visits are usually conducted twice a month during which the officer sits with the children, have food, and has great interaction with them.
NEED ASSESSMENT
The administration is also doing a need assessment of every hostel in the district. In this, the requirement of each hostel comes up and the administration tries to provide it as soon as possible. Mr. Reddy said, “One of the needs we have come across is the need for an RO water facility. So, we are planning to work on this need during the summer holidays and ensure that they have this facility as soon as possible.”
Some other requirements also came up, like when he visited a girl’s hostel, and they were in need of stationery material for the examinations. The need was immediately fulfilled and hence the initiative solved its purpose of providing ownership to the concerned officers. Mr. Reddy said, “In a span of over six months, we want all the hostels in the district, which is close to around 200, to be in good shape with all the required facilities.”
