Abhijith N Kolpe

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Aug 17: Due to the corona pandemic, schools and colleges have been shut down since several months. The online classes for the students have already commenced. Unfortunately there are many parents who cannot afford to acquire smart phones, laptops etc to support education of their children due to economic constraints.

People have already come across in the country various situations where parents pledge their jewellery, vehicles etc in order to buy smartphones, laptops etc for their children for online classes. It has been an uphill task for the parents who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic. Therefore, in such cases, parents could not afford to buy smart phones for their children.

Suchetha Vikram (left) and Aman Rodrigues

In this regard, two young students, Aman Rodrigues and Suchetha Vikram, who are pursuing law at CHRIST (Deemed to be University) in Bengaluru, have taken up a digital drive to collect used smart phones and donate them to underprivileged children in Mangaluru and Bengaluru which will help them in their education.

Aman Rodrigues hails from Karangalpady here. He is in charge of digital drive in Mangaluru, while Suchetha Vikram, who hails from Bengaluru, is in charge of the drive in Bengaluru.

Speaking to daijiworld.com, Aman said, “Myself and Suchetha Vikram took up this initiative of digital drive to donate used mobile phones, tablets and laptops which will help the underprivileged children for their education and this drive is a part of NGO called Suraksha Dhama."

“We have noticed that a lot of parents cannot afford phones for their children as either they have lost their jobs or do not have enough money for the same. We collect used smartphones, laptops from people and donate them to the children of civic workers, domestic helpers etc. Meanwhile, once in a month, we will check whether they are really using the phone or not.

“A week ago we started this drive and managed to donate four phones in Mangaluru. Two of them we have donated to children of domestic helpers in an apartment and two phones for White Doves’ children's home through its founder Corrine Rasquinha.

“The response is quite slow as no one is coming forward to donate. We cannot do a door-to- door drive in this situation, which can be more effective. So far four to five people are on the line to donate phones in Mangaluru. We have also tied up with a student organisation in Mumbai where few of them have shown interest in donating used phones and they will be sending us them to Bengaluru.

“We will not donate phones to those families which have jobs and can financially afford to buy them. We look into their income, those who lost jobs, do not have enough income, and even single parent raising two children at a time,” he said.

Suchetha Vikram said, "We have collected four phones in Bengaluru. We have not donated them yet as we hope to collect a few more before donating. We are planning to donate them to a school called Ujjwal. It is a school which caters to domestic servants and their children. The response is very slow as of now and we are waiting for it to pick up."

Those who willing to donate used smart phones can contact:

Aman Rodrigues: +91 8050884563 (Mangaluru)
Suchetha Vikram: +91 9980910055 (Bengaluru)