How den for addicts turned into bustling youth centre

How den for addicts turned into bustling youth centre

For the past five years, PT Mane Udyan at Nagpada (E-ward) is a “natural classroom” for 16-year-old Wasim Ansari, an HSC student at the nearby Maharashtra College. He and dozens of his classmates come to the garden after college hours to study. The garden is a study centre for hundreds of boys and girls, majority of who are observing the 30-day fast during Ramzan. The students study in one corner of the garden, which has a shed and a dozen study tables and desks. Shaikh Adnan, a mechanical engineering student at Saboo Siddik Polytechnic at Byculla, is a regular. “I feel privileged studying in the vicinity of trees, natural breeze and chirping of birds. I go home after three hours of study here,” he said. The study centre, which shares its boundary with the Nagpada police station, remains open till midnight with different set of students visiting it. The garden was known to be a centre for drug addicts before a group of citizens of the area in 2005 adopted it under the Educational and Welfare Foundation (EWF). EWF secretary Fareed Khan said, “This 100-year-old and 1.5-acre garden was a deserted place because of drug addicts. On the other hand, kids and youth in the area had no place to study. We requested the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to give it to us for education and health facilities.” The garden now celebrates environment day, runs medical camps and also conducts cultural programmes. Besides, computer classes are being conducted in a small room and a dispensary is run in another shed, the expenses of which are borne by the EWF trust. A couple of months ago, EWF started a boxing class in which close to 20 students between 6-19 are being trained. “We have won three gold, two silver and a bronze at the state championship this year,” said Owais Darvesh, state under-14 champion and a FYJC student at Christ Church College.