Around 200 students wade through knee-high sewage and slush to get to school
At 7 every morning, around 200 students, some as young as six, spend two minutes wading through knee-high sewage and slush to get to school. Human waste washes around their ankles; they try to swat flies away.
The children live in Sathe Nagar, on the eastern fringes of Mumbai, and a huge drain separates them from the schools in a nearby locality. Taking the only bridge that exists means an hour-long circuitous journey which tires them out, so they prefer the shortcut.
"If we took a detour, we got late for school and we would be punished. And if we used this route, our legs would get infected. If a bridge is built, we will not have to walk through the sludge," said 12-year-old Akhilesh Paswan, succinctly presenting the case of many of his classmates.
After NDTV reported on the problem over the weekend, the city corporation has begun constructing a temporary bridge; a permanent structure will follow, officials promise. "We are figuring out the feasibility of a pedestrian bridge in the area. We have already forwarded all the complaints to the Bridges department," said Assistant Municipal Commissioner Kiran S Dighavkar.
But the slums of Sathe Nagar and surrounding areas are festering with a host of problems - it reports the lowest human development indicators in the city. A study by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences shows the area afflicted with chronic malnutrition, infectious diseases and slim-to-none sanitation facilities and water.
"We don't have adequate schools or healthcare facilities in the ward and all of this impacts the larger population and the children," said Saba Khan, the coordinator for a development project led by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.