Northern India suffers severe cold during winter season every year than the Southern part of the country. India Today reported that in Jan, 2019 Delhi’s weather worsened, and the cold claimed 103 lives.
One of the reasons why so many people die in Winter is due to unaffordability of clothes to keep themselves warm. The underprivileged suffer the snare of winter extremely, while many of us just throw away our clothes or burn them despite those clothes have life to add.
“Lack of clothing is not just the problem of the slums; it is a global issue”, stressed Anshu Gupta, Founder, Goonj. He was in the city addressing the press&media about how lack of access to proper clothes and materials related to education like school bags, boxes, notebooks etc., are hindering rural kids from getting educated.
He announced the launch of Goonj’s School-To-School Initiative to make Coimbatore provide rural India’s education-needs. It was announced in the presence of Swathy Rohit, Founder, School Basix and COO, SNR Sons’ Charitable Trust
Anshu spoke about ‘School to School Initiative’ in the meet. He said, a child in an urban region gets a new lunch box every year not because it is old, but there is a new design or a character (lunch-boxes stickers) in the market. In many houses, water bottles are disposed before its time for recycling, just because a new one is bought. Also, unused but still wearable clothes are dumped or burned in many urban areas in India.
“There are 2 Indias”, the privileged and the underprivileged. The latter session lacks the materials to study and the opportunity to elevate themselves. The same resources and materials an urban child disposes can take care of the needs of the kids coming from the poor side of India.
He said Goonj focuses not only on collecting these surplus urban materials and providing it to the needy but also on sensitizing kids in urban areas and in private schools about the requirements of the rural Indian students & kids just like them, and how through their share, the lesser privileged can also become successful.
From Education materials like school books, note books, stationery to school bags, boxes, water bottles etc, all the under-utilized materials are collected with the help of regional partners through the School-To-School Initiatives. “There can be a very good optimum usage of everything”, said Anshu Gupta.
He also thanked the support given by the benevolent members of Coimbatore Textile Industry who have contributed to the clothing needs of the rural-students in India.
Swathy Rohit, said “As a part of SNR Sons Charitable Trust, we are reaching out to all the schools who can supply urban-surplus materials from schools. We have reached personally to every single school and we will continue this efforts to mobilize the material and ship it to areas where they would convert it to different forms”