Near Thane traffic signal, 17 kids find a better future

The three Pawar girls — Kalpana, 13, Nikita, 10 and Neha, 7, who were selling flowers at the traffic signal two months ago, now have books in their hands and are revising their lessons at the corner of a busy Teen Hath Naka signal.

They are among the 17 students, who are attending the signal school set up by Thane Municipal Corporation along with Samarth Bharat Vyaspeth, an NGO, under the Teen Hath Naka flyover. Though the school has been running for the past two months, it was formally inaugurated by the civic commissioner on Friday. Teachers interact with children at the signal school under the Teen Hath Naka flyover. Thane Municipal Corporation along with NGO Samarth Bharat Vyaspeth has set up the school.

someday. “We had to make great efforts to convince the parents to send the children to the signal school.”

FACILITIES GALORE

While most plush schools may not have gardens, but this small signal school does. In fact, it has slides, swings and seesaws under the flyover where the students are seen playing. Bhatu Sawant, secretary of the NGO, said, “The most prominent change among the students is hygiene —they bathe every day and change their clothes. They reach the school before the teachers. We have constructed

a washroom for the students to freshen up before school hours. We also make provision for doctors in case they are unwell.”

The school, despite its location, has activity based toys and learning tools. The students, in the age group of 4 to 13 years, attend the school from 11am to 4 pm and are taught by four teachers. “They are taught numbers and alphabets. In the next step, we will teach them to read and write. Once they learn this, they can go to the normal school. We also teach them music craft and painting. Last week we got a flute player of their own age,” added Sawant.