About 100 students of the BMC-run Chakala municipal school (both Hindi and Marathi medium) wrote open letters to additional municipal commissioner Vikas Kharge on Tuesday, highlighting their efforts in cleaning their schools and localities and suggesting ideas to the civic body for maintenance of the schools.
The letter-writing event was organised by Citizens Association for Child Rights (CACR) in collaboration with the education department of BMC as part of its ongoing week-long drive on cleanliness. CACR members will deliver the letters to Kharge soon.
Dr Richa Singh, a CACR member, said the letters bore testimony to the fact that the children understand the importance of cleanliness in their area. "The children were happy to get a chance to directly communicate with the officer. Most of them have highlighted the problems their own areas, on water wastage, problems on waste disposal and cleaning of storm water drains. They hope that Kharge will consider their suggestions," said Singh.
Vishakha Virkar, a teacher of the Hindi-medium school, said, "It was a great thing to do. In the future too, we will encourage them to write letters to the civic authorities, which is also a way of involving them in the system."
According to Singh, Suvarna Dandu and Reshma Baig of class X of the Marathi- medium school had written the most innovative letters. While Suvarna shared details about the various programmes organised in her school on cleanliness, she also suggested ways to curb water wastage in her area. "Water leakages should be plugged at our homes and schools," she wrote.
Reshma wrote about the 'Shraam daan' carried out in her school.
In the Hindi-medium schools, students of class VII, Rishikesh Misra and Pooja Gupta, wrote the best letters, according to their teacher.
Rishikesh, a resident of the nearby Thakur Gully of Chakala, said, "Given a chance, we would want to meet Kharge sir, so that we can tell him more about our ideas on making the city cleaner and hygienic."
Students of class VI of that school also took part in a poster-making competition on the 'clean-Mumbai' theme. Three students bagged prizes for their effort.
On Monday, Mujeeb Khan's theatre group staged a play called 'Saaf Swachh Sushikshit Samaj' to a packed audience of 400 students and teachers at the Chakala municipal school. Eight autistic kids from Ashiyana Autistic Institute located at the Nityanand municipal school of Vile Parle also attended the play. The same play was also staged in Petit municipal school and Gazdar municipal school school. Deputy mayor Alka Kelkar was present in the audience.
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