Kochi: Governor P. Sathasivam had 36 young guests from Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday who are on a ‘Bharat Darshan’ arranged by the CRPF as part of its ‘civic action programme’.
The programme is primarily aimed at giving exposure to the most deserving underprivileged students living in the mountainous areas of Jammu &Kashmir. These students, sons of villagers, have never gone beyond their state and speak only Urdu.
“The students from Srinagar, Budgam and Baramulla have seen only the fearful face of terrorism and had not seen a multiplex or the sea or the beach and are an excited lot as they descended Kerala for the four day tour,” said Mathew A. John, DIG-CRPF, who accompanied the students to the Governor.
The CRPF is conducting the programme as part of the national integration initiative, Mr John said.
“They are touring various spots in Thiruvanan-thapuram including Var-kala and Kovalam beaches and are heading to Kanyakumari. They will also visit some schools in the city.”
The children are aged between 9 and 19 and are from classes 3 to 10. “Some of them are lagging in study since they did not get opportunity for it,” Mr John said. “This includes four deaf and dumb children.” Four teachers are also accompanying the students.
The villagers of the three districts were ready to allow their boys to go on such a tour and the children readily agreed to it, Mr John said.
“They are a bit sad since they are not able to communicate freely with the host people including the Governor since they know only Urdu and not even Hindi. We translated and helped them.” This is the first visit to a state as part of the Bharat Darshan programme.
