Mobile bus to feed, educate Thane street kids

In a first for Maharashtra, Thane city has launched a unique initiative: that of providing health, education and nutrition to children living on the city’s streets via a child-friendly mobile bus

Thane: In a first for Maharashtra, Thane city has launched a unique initiative: that of providing health, education and nutrition to children living on the city’s streets via a child-friendly mobile bus.

Thane, India - February 22, 2023: Thane district collector introduces mobile child-friendly bus, the first of its kind in the State, dedicated to children on the streets for their health, education and their welfare, in Thane, India, on Wednesday, February 22, 2023. (Praful Gangurde/HT Photo) (HT PHOTO)

“This is the first such bus in the state, launched by the women and child welfare department,” said Ashok Shingare, Thane collector, who inaugurated the project. “Such buses will also be operated in Pune, Nagpur, Nashik and Mumbai in future.” Additional collector Manisha Jaybhaye was also present at the inauguration of the project, for which the central government has sanctioned ₹50 lakh.

The bus has a seating capacity of 25, and will ply in six different locations across Thane. It will have a staff of four – a preacher, a teacher, a driver and a caretaker – to look after the kids. “The buses have CCTV and a location tracker system to ensure that the children are safe,” said Shingare. “They will run in pockets where kids live on the street and under bridges in the Kalwa, Mumbra, Bhiwandi and Navi Mumbai areas.”

Madhukar Gaikwad, head of the woman and child welfare department, said that Thane was the precursor in the project because the department had already done a street survey in January 2022 and had collected data from 1,936 children. “So, with this data, we are set to look after their health, education and nutrition,” he said. “We are connected to these children and their families at ground level.”

Gaikwad said that the children would be given informal education in the moving bus. “Then based on their capability, we will send them to regular schools,” he said. “Apart from this, their medical check-ups will be done and appropriate nutrition provided through food and medicine. We will also focus on helping the kids’ mothers in preparing documents and getting jobs. That will be done parallelly.”