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Home visits are
important to understand children’s behavior at school and it becomes easier to
interact with the parents if they are able to communicate with the staff of the
school on daily basis. Home visitations
by teachers gets parents involved in their child’s education and they let
parents and children know how much the teachers care.
On 18th July 2019
a home visit was made to three students’ homes at Uran (in Raighad district) by
Madhuri, Charu and Pushpa. The students whose homes were visited were Arafat
(12yrs) Shravani (14yrs) and Rishikesh (17yrs. ). They are the students of our
Uran Centre called Seabird Special School. About twenty minutes were spent in
each home.
Two of the
students, Arafat and Shravani, had not come to school for few days because they
were not well but the children were very happy to see their teachers visit them
at their home.
All three live in
very tiny sparsely furnished house. The children live under constant supervision
of their parents.
Arafat lives alone
with his mother, His father works as driver in Dubai (presently, he has not
been keeping well, hence has taken temporary job in the city). His two sisters live at Madrasa at Ratnagiri
and are doing Islamic studies. During their holidays, mother makes a trip to visits
them. Arafat is encouraged to do his own
work like washing his own plate, keeping the house tidy and other such small
odd jobs at home. He spends most of his time at home. He does not have many
friends in the community because of his limited speech and his quiet nature.
However mother plays indoor games like dominos and lego with him, whenever she
gets time. He goes for prayers regularly, three times a day, in the community
meeting where he is taught to read and pray. He even kept fast during Ramzam
for 16 days this year. Mother is quite alert and takes interest in her child’s
activities. Arafat is a happy child and is well looked after at home.
Shravani lives
with her mother and her younger sister. Father is a labourer and works on
contract basis. She had not come to school for few days because she was
suffering from psoriasis (she showed us her arm that was darkened and bruised).
The road leading to her house is muddy and steep and there is too much filth
and garbage everywhere, which is unhealthy for all residents living there. The
school bus drops Shravani at quite a distance and she walks alone toward her
house through the sleep hill. Shravani lives on second floor. However the
interior of the house, although small, it was quite tidy. Mother was busy
cleaning the floor. There were only two chairs in the room, one TV, one side
table and one small shelf of God idols for prayers. Otherwise the room was
completely empty. Shravani helps in the house with housework like cleaning;
folding clothes, swabbing, etc., but mother is quite protective and does not
allow her to do any housework.
Rishikesh lives
in row house of one room kitchen. The road leading to his house is very filthy, dirty
mud dug up and infested with mosquitos. His house was very suffocating due to
poor ventilation and tin roof. Room was bare except for one TV and a bed.
Rishikesh”s two medal (that were won during his sporting events) were showcased
on the shelf along with other memorable things.
Mother is very gentle and caring. Father has vices and is sometimes
irresponsible towards family needs but is now trying to be off liquor. He is
State transport driver.
Rishikesh has one
sister who is married. He has one elder brother who is studying in another city
but comes home during his holidays. The brothers interact well with each other
and have a good rapport. Rishikesh does a lots of house work like filling the
drinking water, cleaning, sweeping the floor, also makes bed and runs errands
for the family like buying small things from the shop...his mother however told
us that he needs to be told softly and peacefully otherwise he refuses to do
anything. He does not go out or have friends in the vicinity. Post long
vacation, it is difficult to get him to go back to school. He loves watching TV and
is interested in sports activities conducted in school and also at inter-school competitions. He
doesn't want his father to come to school because he is ashamed of him being
alcoholic. Otherwise he is happy to be part of school.
All the three
families were loving and caring .
