Alison D’Cruz from Khoirut, Aldona recently won the national
essay writing competition for all the schools in India on the theme ‘Crime Free
Children of Today: Crime Free India of Tomorrow’. A class X student of St
Thomas Girls High School, Aldona, Alison won the first prize while Snevisha
Rodrigues from Pope John XXIII High School, Quepem won the third prize.
Interestingly, the highest number of school participation was from Goa with 42
schools with a total of 138 students from all over India taking part. The
competition was conducted by the Prison Ministry of India and the prizes were
distributed at the 11th National Conference at Faridabad, Delhi.
Returning from the award function, Alison is more focused
towards writing and more importantly excelling at her board exams. The daughter
of Anil and ElinaD’Cruz, Alison studied at the Indian School, in Al Gobar,
Muscat before moving to Goa. “I was informed about the essay writing
competition about two weeks in advance. My English teacher Hazel Fernandes was
keen on students writing the essay. I submitted my work in September and the
results were declared in October,” says Alison, who is also involved in
extracurricular activities.
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Since the competition was conducted by the Prison Ministry
of India, it dealt with how children can make a positive impact. “In the essay,
I focused on the home environment of a child, how their parents treat them with
love and care and how they should be guided. When they make a mistake, they should
be corrected and when questioned, parents should be able to answer their
questions reasonably. Most children search for unwanted information on the
internet, which often provides incorrect information and misinforms them. This
can even lead to cyber crime,” says Alison.
She further adds, “I also wrote a small fictional story
which was inspired by real life incidents. A child finds a gun in a drawer, he
asks his mother what it is and she just replies to keep it there. Being
inquisitive, the child watches videos over the internet and learns how to use
the gun and accidentally shoots his own mother. This was a case I read about
but rewrote differently. It shows how the child was curious and if the mother
had to tell him that it is a dangerous weapon and not something to fool around
with, he would not have killed her.”
Alison loves reading, dancing and Science is one of her
favourite subjects. “Alison loves studying and is very focused on her exams and
projects. In her spare time, she mixes around with her group of close friends,”
says Alycia, Alison’s elder sister.
