Have used books with unused pages? Ruiaites are looking for you

Two student groups from Matunga's Ramnarain Ruia College have taken up the task to provide notebooks and bicycles to tribal students in rural Thane

Have used books with unused pages? Ruiaites are looking for you

Two student groups from Matunga's Ramnarain Ruia College have taken up the task to provide notebooks and bicycles to tribal students in rural Thane

Five Ruia College students have taken up the cause of providing notebooks to needy students. Their method is simple ufffd collect used notebooks from fellow students and residents of their housing colonies, look for unused pages, and collect them to make fresh sets for tribal students in rural areas of Thane.

The initiative isn't one to secure extra marks for a social service project or to earn a volunteer certificate that will add to their resume. It's because they wish to be responsible citizens and give back to society, say the students.

Srishti Haldipur, 19, a second year BA student, says this is the best way to help with educating underprivileged students.

"We realised we were giving away used notebooks at the end of each academic year, and most of them had several unused pages. We decided to stop that and instead, collect blank pages and make new notebooks. We started working towards the initiative on July 1 and have already collected more than 1,00 pages," Haldipur says.

Haldipur, Pooja Gupta and second year BA students Priyal Panchal, Divya Ramasubramaniam and Snehal Mirashe collect set out to collect blank pages which they dunk in bags they carry. The pages are then categorised according to size.

On amassing a sizeable amount of pages, the students plan to hand them over to Aured, a not-for-profit organisation that works with hearing-impaired children. The disabled volunteers will bind the pages together to make brand new notebooks.

"We have created a Facebook page to spread the word about our initiative. We hope it helps us collect more pages, and inspire younger kids to take up similar drives," says Gupta.u00a0

Another group of four girls from the same college, Asira Chirmuley, Yashashree Ketkar, Mukta Deshpande and Eesha Chirmuley, have launched an initiative to collect scrap bicycles that can be repaired and donated to underprivileged students.

"We expect to mend the bicycles using money we gather from sponsors, and donate the cycles to college students from rural Thane. We've collected 20 bicycles. Our aim is 40," says Eesha Chirmuley, 18.