Sub-inspector takes to the streets of village in Tiruvallur, asks parents to send their wards to school

The video of a sub-inspector of police making an open appeal to parents in a remote Tamil Nadu village, asking them to send their children to school has gone viral on social media.

The video of a sub-inspector of police making an open appeal to parents in a remote Tamil Nadu village, asking them to send their children to school has gone viral on social media.

The SI, M. Paramasivam of Pennalurpet police station in Tiruvallur, accompanied the Headmaster of the Government Tribal Middle School to the village from where 11 children had been absent from classes for a long time. In the video, apparently without his knowledge, the police official is seen sensitising the villagers on why they should send their children to school and how denying education could be a punishable offence.

Explaining the government welfare schemes like scholarship, nutritious meal, free textbooks and stationery available to school students, Mr. Paramasivam, a 2021-batch direct SI, said he would closely follow up on the matter with the school authorities and take action against any parent found to be preventing their children from going to school and forcing them into labour or domestic chores.

Police sources said the villagers, a majority of them illiterate, lacked the wherewithal to afford education for their children and had no awareness of the welfare schemes of the government relating to school education.