During a recent visit to India, we have made contact to the Rural Institute for Development & Education (RIDE) in the templetown Kanchipuram, approx. 70 km. east of Chennai (formerly Madras) in de state Tamil Nadu, in India. Kanchipuram is the world famous centre of silk weaving for saris and had a history of child labour working the loams. Thanks to the efforts of the Jeyaraj family over the past 25 years, this form of child labour is more or less history. The kids (between the age of 6-4 years old) are being cared for in so-called Bridge Schools to prepare them for education in Government Schools.

At present, activities are expanded to abolition of child labour in the quarries in the rural areas of Kanchipuram. Children work all day and have no chances in education. First efforts are promising, there is education in the morning, with a prospect of a meal at lunchtime. After lunch, the kids disappear to take up their daily chores. It is a slow process, but if you experience the advance of the children in reading, arithmatic and writing, there is only one answer: we can do nothing but support this!!

More information about RIDE, check their website www.rideindia.org .