In Mahim, school tagged unsafe adds to commute

With their school in Mahim declared dilapidated and unsafe to use, primary children from a municipal school will have to go on a 14km journey each day —a burden placed on their young shoulders by crumbling civic infrastructure.

- Niraj Pandit

MUMBAI:

The sudden move to declare the BMC-run New Mahim Municipal English Primary School as dilapidated ahead of it being demolished has impacted more than 1,500 students.

While secondary students have been accommodated in schools in the vicinity, primary students, aged six to ten, were told that they have been relocated to a municipal school in Worli, almost 7 km away.

Parents are distraught.

"We cannot send our children so far every day. There's no school bus, no transport facility provided. Are we supposed to drop them all the way to Worli and then rush to work? It's impossible," said one parent.

The Mahim school caters mainly to children from Dharavi and other low-income neighbourhoods.