Students Homes or chatralayas are places where children from the lesser privileged families and tribal villages can stay and have all their basic needs taken care of. At the chatralaya, these students are attended to by specially trained wardens who ensure that all their requirements are met with. They are also imparted value-based education and are encouraged to develop their extra-curricular activities. These Student Homes are located near an existing school to make it convenient for the children to attend school.

1. Why Student Homes
2. Planting seeds of knowledge
3. Chatralayas – the hub of service
4. Holistic Training





Why Student Homes

It is a fact that most children are denied basic education for various reasons, poverty being the chief amongst them. Besides, remote areas and far-flung villages have little or no access to even primary schools. In such cases, long distances and inadequate public transport make it all the more difficult for children to attend school.

The following facts reveal the condition of education in remote areas of India:

Less than 30% of the children complete high school
The dropout ratio is almost 6 out of 10
There is often only one secondary school for 10-15 villages
Public transport is either unavailable or is a rarity in most villages
Economic pressure forces most children to drop out of school by the age of 12-13
Lack of a conducive environment to study because of dysfunctional family backgrounds

At the chatralayas, children are selected after careful counselling and consultation with the parents. Boys and girls are provided with separate Homes. They are also placed in a nurturing environment with ample emotional security.

The children follow a disciplined daily routine that includes prayers, exercises, study and recreation. This ensures that the children grow to become emotionally and intellectually mature, responsible persons. They are also offered the following free of cost:

Boarding and lodging
Nutritious food
Regular health check ups
Academic expenses including books, stationery and other study material
Evening tuitions
School uniforms
Travel to places of educational interest

The Chatralayas not only offer the children a nurturing environment, but they also become the hub of other activities such as health care, counselling, mobile medical facilities for the children as well for the people in the neighbouring villages. Women receive special counselling on post natal care, hygiene, child nutrition and so on.

Thus, by acting as anchor points for AIM for Seva’s community outreach programmes, the chatralayas aid in empowering the backward segments of society to be a part of the mainstream society.

The biggest difference that AIM for Seva makes is in offering the children holistic training by imparting
value-based cultural education to build the character of the children. This encourages the children to grow into confident and contributing members of the society, proud of their rich cultural heritage.

Holistic training works at two levels. On one hand, children are inculcated with the values that can help them lead a disciplined life. On the other, they are encouraged to explore their various skills so that they can blossom into future talents in various fields of life.

To ensure this, they are exposed to various aspects of fine arts and other related fields that broaden their horizons. So they not only learn subjects in various courses, but also gain valuable knowledge in various facets of life.