Rescuing the future of convicts' kids

BANGALORE: Twelve-year-old Smitha (name changed) wants to become an IAS officer. Ask her why, she says, "May be I can do something good to the poor."
Smitha is literally a case of future salvaged. Her childhood would have withered away either in a jail or in the big bad world where she would never have been allowed to overcome the stigma of being a convict's child.
Now studying in an English medium school, Smitha dreams big, thanks to the Society's Care for Indigent (So Care Ind), an NGO, of which she is an inmate.
So Care Ind runs three centres, Rajajinagar (girls) and Laggere (boys) in Bangalore and one in Gulbarga, where 179 inmates like Smitha are housed. The NGO doesn't see them as children of murderers, rapists, dacoits, robbers and pickpockets. It treats them with dignity, restores their innocence and helps them return to the mainstream with self-belief and hope.
Set up in 1979, the NGO has ensured that children from over 300 families of convicts have been able to dream of becoming police officers, IAS officers, doctors and teachers. The children's parents are in Parappana Agrahara, Hindalaga, Shimoga and Mysore prisons and sub-jails across Karnataka.
So Care Ind was founded by the late V Mani, a former AGM with a nationalized bank, who once walked every day in front of Central Jail, then on Seshadri Road. Watching children waiting in front of the jail and pleading with officials to let them meet their parents, Mani decided to do something for them.
After retirement, Mani began So Care Ind by giving shelter, food and schooling to two girl children in his house. Sheltering convicts' children was easy. But getting them educated was a Herculean task. Most children who came to the NGO had been rusticated by their institutions following their parents' infamy.
"When we went to private English schools, they ignored us and asked us go to government schools. They did not want to admit our children due to the stigma they carried. But we persisted and managed to convince them. Now, all our children are studying; over 70% of them are in English schools with CBSE and ICSE syllabus," says a trustee.
Mani passed away a month ago, but his institution has grown into a tree and is administered by nine trustees and three wardens.
How does it work?
Prisoners route applications for their children through jail authorities. The NGO's representatives visit the prisoner and his or her family. They counsel the family on how the children's future will be secure with them. Children are taken only with parents' consent. The centre gets about 40 formal applications and many oral requests, every year. Only 20 children are taken every year.
R Venkateshanathan, secretary, So Care Ind, says, "These children carry with them battered memories. Some of them might have even witnessed crime," he says.
The children are educated in schools and encouraged to to take part in other activities like singing, classical dance, sports and craft. Two boys have won laurels in Taekwondo and taken part in the nationals.
They brought light in my life, says girl
Savithri (name changed) was a toddler when her father was convicted of a crime. "My mother is illiterate. I went to a hostel. My brother joined So Care Ind. I joined him when I was in PU. After doing B.Com, I joined an insurance firm. I will join an auditor in six months. My brother scored 93% in SSLC. The centre has brought light in our lives. We have now joined our mother as she is a heart patient," says the girl.