From selling flowers to knocking car windows at traffic signals, street children have come a long way and now sit in a classroom burrowing their heads in textbooks.
They are studying at a SIGNAL school started by a Pune-based NGO, Samarth Bharat Vyaspith (SBV) which has now got accreditation from the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).
Notably, apart from providing mainstream education to the less fortunate ones, the Signal Shala also conducts activities like dance, sports and games.
The organisation aims to reach out to children begging at traffic signals in Thane.
"We love to come here every day. We have robotics classes here on Saturdays and Sundays. After school, we help our parents in making garlands and selling products at traffic signals," Sameer Sanjay Pawar told ANI.
"We also have weekly sports classes. I live under a bridge with my parents. Its feels good coming here and learning new things," said another student.
"In megacities, lots of children stay under the bridge or on traffic signals. We thought of providing them with mainstream education and came up with this kind of school. Our major tasks is to encourage good habits in children like wearing clean clothes, not being superstitious and not begging etc," a volunteer working in this school told ANI.
