SIPCOT survey: by Vipul
From Cmi Spark
On January 14, Anirbit and I (Vipul) conducted a survey of SIPCOT IT Park. The idea was to go to construction sites and determine which of them could make use of Spark's services.
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Getting people to go
Anirbit had initially planned to get along with him Ravitej, Bhanukiran and some others who knew a modicum of Tamil and could act as interpreters. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, Anirbit could not enlist any volunteers other than himself or me.
SIPCOT Project Office
Anirbit's first planned stop was the SIPCOT Project Office, from where he hoped to get a complete map of the area and details of individual construction sites. Unfortunately (though as could be expected) the SIPCOT Project Office was closed (probably on account of Sunday).
CC Airtel
Anirbit and I next ventured into the Airtel Data Center Office under construction (being made by Consolidated Construction Consortium Limited). The security guard did not know Hindi, and after some failed attempts to communicate with him, Anirbit talked to a person with the security guard who knew English. It transpired that none of the construction workers lived on the construction site, and that their homes were in Sholinganallur.
TCS
We next went to the TCS site being constructed by Larsen and Toubro. After talking to the security guards at two of the gates, we discovered that none of the workers actually live in the area, and most of them come from neighbouring villages.
CCCL site beyond Hexaware
Anirbit then walked to the CCCL area beyond the Hexaware consturction site (opposite Cognizant) and talked to some of the people staying there. Some of the people working there knew Hindi, and we talked to them for some time. They told us the following:
- There are around 20 children upto the age of 10-12
- Most of them are not around today
- The children do not go to school
- The children should be around after 8 a.m. tomorrow
Anirbit explained that CMI is taking an initiative to educate the children. The general response was skeptical but polite.
After this, we walked around a bit more and decided to call it a day.
