School bus strike call leaves Mumbai parents struggling

With most of the school bus operators planning to join the state-wide strike called by the school bus owners association in protest against new “impractical’’ safety norms imposed by the state government, parents are struggling to arrange for alternative transport for their children.

Most of the school managements are supporting the strike. But schools did not get much time to inform their parents and at such short notice, parents are scrambling to arrange alternative transport for the children.

Several parents say they will use public transport or might even have to take a day off work to ferry their children to school.

Namrata Naringrekar, a working parent from Dahisar, said: “Both my children have different school timings. One has morning school and the other goes to school in the afternoon. Generally, the school bus takes care of everything. We want the safety of our children, but the strike will take a toll on the parents.”

The school managements and the bus operators feel that the norms will add to their financial burden.

Meanwhile, many schools have been forced to stop running their buses as the contractors refused to ply.