Mumbai’s unused cycles will soon turn into a mode of daily commute for the children of tribal areas of Maharashtra. Two organisations of the state have come together with an initiative, which will collect unused cycles from the city and distribute them to the underprivileged students in rural areas who walk their way to school daily.
Rotary Club of Mumbai Kandivali West has launched the initiative of collecting such cycles from across the city, which have been lying unused. The club will find potential donors and conduct the collection while the Gurudev Siddha Peeth Trust in Ganeshpuri will identify the needy students from various villages around the city.
FPJ |
FPJ |
FPJ |
Rotary Club started the initiative in 2022 aimed to make the old cycles in working conditions within the city useful to the students in villages. The organisation collected 56 cycles from across the city with a major donation from the western suburbs and distributed them to the students of a school in Palghar district.
Amrish Doshi, who heads the project for the club, said, “The cycles bought for kids turn useless as they grow old and lie untouched in the parking space. At the same time, there are so many students in the villages who travel 5km or more to reach their schools. These unused cycles can help such students reach their school safely during extreme weather conditions also.”
This year the organisation will register the donation of cycles till the end of the month and will collect the registered cycles in the first week of March. After collection, they will be handed over to Prasad Chikitsa, an NGO affiliated to the Gurudev Siddha Peeth Trust, which will distribute them among the underprivileged children.
Milind Nargund, General Manager of Prasad Chikitsa said, “We run a lot of social welfare works including many health and medical initiatives for the tribal population around Ganeshpuri. Through this, we come in contact with a lot of families and their needs. Once we receive the cycles, we will identify suitable school-going children from villages and hamlets based around Ganeshpuri.”
