Velu runs away from home to escape his abusive father and ends up in Chennai. He meets a girl named Jaya who is also a runaway. She offers him food and introduces him to her work as a rag picker, collecting paper, plastics, and bottles from garbage to sell. Velu is hesitant about this dirty work but Jaya explains that the items are sold to a factory, making the work more meaningful. The story provides insights into the difficult lives of runaway children who have to work to survive.

1. STD VIII – NON-
DETAIL

2. EACH SESSION WILL START WITH A SHORT STORY FROM
OUR SUPPLEMENTARY READER,
THESE STORIES ARE FULLY DEVELOPED WITH A THEME,
SIGNIFICANTLY SHORTER AND LESS ELABORATE THAN A
NOVEL.

3. CHAPTER – 2
CHILDREN AT WORK

4. Broadly speaking, there are two kinds of children - those
who have everything they need, and those who don’t.

5. •Are children who cannot
or do not go to school
happier than those who do?
•Why is it important that
children attend school?

6. •How are children important to
the society?
•Why do children run
away from homes?

7. THE STORY

8. Velu is a eleven year old child who runs from home and reaches Chennai
Central in Kanyakumari Express without a ticket. Without any money to
buy ticket, he travels in the train, but luckily the Ticket collector doesn't
come to the compartment he is sitting in. He tries to sleep near the door of
the train, but a group of men playing cards there, make it impossible for
him to do so. Lack of sleeplessness makes him feel tired and exhausted, as
he is empty stomach and has eaten only peanuts and jaggery from the last
two days.

9. He is then awakened by a noise and when open his eyes sees a girl of his age
standing in front of him. The girl wears a long baniyan till her knees. Her hair was
stiff and brown, and she had a rack on her shoulders. She was picking dirty plastic
cups from the floor and stuffing it in the rag. The girl asks Velu's name and asks
him if he has run away from home.
But Velu doesn't trust a stranger with his
secrets and get beaten by his father. His
father was a drunkard, and abused his
children, and also spent all the money in
drinks earned by the children. The girl
asks Velu about his plans, and doesn't get
an answer. Hunger starts pinching Velu,
and the girl offers him some food. When
the sun rose, Velu's feet burned with the
glaring of the sun and he was soaked with
sweat. His mind reeled over food, and they
stopped before a big building which was
an auditorium.

10. There was an wedding going on there and the name of the bride and
the groom was written in outside. The girl asks Velu to come inside,
and Velu becomes nervous by seeing the huge venue and inquires
whether they would be eating there.
The girl leads him towards the
backyard of the hall where a
huge garbage bin overflows
with rubbish, wherein two
goats stand fighting over a
banana leaf, and the girl picks
up a squashy banana and gives
it to Velu for eating. Velu then
remarks that the houses in the
village appear to be strange as
they are made of mud and
palm leaves.

11. The girl Jaya, goes around one of the huts and dumps her sack and picks
up an empty one. She then throws a pair of old shoes towards Velu, hands
him over a sack as hers and asks him to come with her. Velu is a little
confused by the work he has been assigned with, as he had only worked
on a landowner's farm, weeding and grazing cows. puzzled Velu asks if
there were any farms in the city, to which Jaya replies that there are no
farms in the city and they were ragpickers. Velu had never done such a
thing and is very skeptical about picking rubbish.

12. Jaya then explains Velu that they will only be picking paper, plastics
and glass bottles, and Velu becomes even more confused when he
knows that they are to sell these things to Jam Bazaar Jaggu. He
enquires Jaya as to why the person is ready to buy the rubbish and who
the person was, to which she replies that Jaggu would sell the items to a
factory. Jaya feels that Velu is wasting time thinking about whether to
do the job or not, but Velu is adamant about doing such a job of picking
up garbage.

13. ACTIVITY
•The part of the story I liked the best was...
•While I was reading this story, I wondered...
•While I was reading this story, I noticed...
•I think children who have to work and cannot go to school
have very little......

14. OUR TAKE AWAY MESSAGE
What some throw away as
waste may be valuable to
others.
So, let’s value everything
and also do charity to help
the needy.

15. THANK YOU!