Members of Marathi Abhyas Kendra — an organisation promoting cultural and lingual significance of Marathi — gathered with citizens and political activists at Mahim on Sunday to express dissent outside the now-shut building of what once was the civic-run New Mahim School. The gathering alleged that the public was shown no structural audit for the building’s closure and that the land was once allotted to schools was not being utilised for student welfare.
The group made seven demands; the first being immediate repairs and reinstatement of the New Mahim School, followed by disclosure of structural audit reports. They demanded action against repairers if the school buildings are being declared dangerous within a short period of repairs, while asking for the reconstruction of Marathi schools in a timely manner. “BMC should publish information on the expenditure on Marathi-medium schools out of the total expenditure on education on the website,” stated a list of requests by the group.
“We were approached by people from Mahim, other parts of Mumbai, and even Nasik, who saw schools turn into residential and commercial buildings while the school itself was pushed into a corner. Now, we are sending a letter to the BMC commissioner and hoping for a response within two days. If we don’t have one, we may go ahead with a formal protest,” said Dr Deepak Pawar, founder of Marathi Abhyas Kendra.
The citizens who gathered on Sunday evening also objected to the presence of any residential or commercial spots inside reconstructed school buildings. “Students who have been relocated from the spacious New Mahim (school) building have been attending congested schools that are far away from their homes. Problems with water and clean washrooms persist,” said Pranali Raut, a citizen activist and a member of the Aam Aadmi Party.
Over the past months, members of Marathi Abhyas Kendra have also called out the Narendra Jadhav Committee, as part of their ongoing agitation against the three-language policy. While announcing the creation of a detailed report against the implementation of Hindi, the group also stated that turning Marathi schools in Mumbai into central or international schools should immediately be stopped.
“We have begun a third-party structural audit of the building. Once the process is completed, necessary action will be taken. After the building was declared structurally unsafe, we ensured that all students were relocated to neighbouring schools and are resuming their education,” said a BMC official.
