Scan - Kalwa East - May 1st 2010

Area 1: Settlements parallel to the railway tracks on the East.

Area 2: Shanti Nagar (It is a 3-5 mins walk from Kalwa station).

Time: 13:15 to 14:30 hrs

Volunteers: Prajakta, Ratna, Alok and Yash.

Observations:

Points common to Area 1 and Area 2: There was a major water problem in these areas. We came to know that the water had not come for 2 days. There was a public toilet in the area – separate for men and women. The people from Area 2 used a public toilet which was close to the station. Shiv Sena was the ruling party and Mr. Mahesh Salvi was the elected leader. There were no municipal hospitals in the area. The closest hospital was Shivaji Hospital (Private hospital in Kalwa West).

There are a number of schools in the area:

• Kalwa Hindi Vidya Mandir
• Panduranga Private School
• Municipal School – Kalwa Market, West
• 1 Private School in Anand Nagar

In Area 1, a girl called Kajal (studying in the 5^th std) in Kalwa Hindi Vidya Mandir said that the school provided food (khichdi, Halwa etc), notebooks, textbooks but did not provide uniforms.

Most of the children in Area 1 went to school. Some even went to schools in Thane.

However, the situation in Area 2 was depressing. The area houses a population of 5000 people (Yash, please confirm this). Hygiene is a major issue since this area is very unclean and the Nala is full of moss and garbage.

Many of the children (in fact most of the children) did not go to school. They were not engaged in any income generating work. However, we saw children carrying water, some children stayed at home to take care of the house while the parents went to work etc.

We were told that the men and women in the area were involved in Mistry work, selling of utensils (in exchange for clothes), had monkeys and used them for begging for money, swept roads, gutters etc. The financial status of these people was very low. Also, interactions with people showed that there was little knowledge of schools in the area, of government schemes etc.

We spoke to Mr. Sanjay Ramrao Salunkhe who worked as a construction labourer. He has 3 children- 2 sons (11 and 5 years old) and 1 daughter (7 years old). The eldest son does not go to school because he did not have a birth certificate because he was born at their residence in their native place in Nashik. The other 2 children went to Marathi Municipal School in Shiv Shakti Nagar (this school is till the 8^th standard). He said that he would make his eldest son do farming in their fields in Nashik once he grows up.

We spoke to a girl called Amida Sayyed. She was about 13 years old. She had studied till her 3^rd standard after which she had to leave school to stay at home and take care of the house and her little sister – Sayira (11 years old). Sayira also studied till the 1^st standard after which she refused to go school. They do not have a father and their mother earns a living by selling Mehendi in the local trains. Sayira sometimes accompanies her mother.

We happened to meet a kid called Krishna – 11 years old. He has never been in school. His mother stays in their native place and he stays here with his dad. He said that his parents have never taken the initiative to send him to school.

There was a child (name unknown) who left school because his teacher hit him hard (this was in the Municipal School in Anand Nagar).

A lady called Laxmi told us that a few days back, some 5 men and 1-2 women had come from Mulund. They came and requested these people to send their children to school and that they would take care of them. Laxmi has visited this school in Mulund (she could neither recollect the name of the school nor recollect the location in Mulund). She said that the school was really good.

There were comments from people stating that the Anand Nagar school was not good enough.

Personal Comments:

• This is an area where there is scope for a lot of improvement. An enrolment drive is absolutely essential for an area like this.
• The Parents are not even aware of the basic facilities that a Municipal school provides. The importance and inclination towards education is also very weak or almost absent.
• The point about girl children staying at home to take care of the house or to take care of a younger sibling again stands out.