Orphans at VM Home against the might of the State

Government proposes to build a 500-bed multi-speciality hospital on the premises of the home

February 17, 2017 12:53 am | Updated 03:37 pm IST - HYDERABAD

Uncertainty looms  (Above) The land belonging to Victoria Memorial Home Residential School may shrink if the government goes forward with its proposal to build a hospital. Students sitting on the floor during a class as the school lacks basic amenities.

Uncertainty looms (Above) The land belonging to Victoria Memorial Home Residential School may shrink if the government goes forward with its proposal to build a hospital. Students sitting on the floor during a class as the school lacks basic amenities.

Morning and evening walkers flocking to the Victoria Memorial Home Residential School grounds have no inkling of the new health option they might soon have, nor do the children frolicking around with tiny glasses tucked in their pockets awaiting milk.

The sprawling premises would shrink by over 10 acres after the construction of 500-bed multi-speciality government hospital, as proposed by a recent government order. The GO ostensibly accords permission to engage consultants for preparation of plans and estimates for construction of such hospitals at four locations in the city, one among them, VM Home. It is only an addition to another proposal, for setting up Rachakonda Police Commissionerate headquarters here, which, according to officials, is being “favourably considered”.

Glorious history

Yet, these two are neither the first nor the only attempts to alienate land from this 114-year-old institution with a glorious history. Three erstwhile Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh – Marri Chenna Reddy, N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy – tried, successfully at times, to alienate land from the 75-acre original spread, for purposes other than education of orphan and semi-orphan children, for which the home was originally conceptualised.

Land on lease

Ten acres of the home were acquired for the national highway, and close to five acres were leased out to Rythu Bazaar, Babu Jagjivan Ram Bhavan (under SC Development Department), and Reliance Industries, on the other side of the road. Of the lessees, only Reliance pays the rent.

Taking a leaf out of its predecessors’ book, the incumbent TRS government too is making many attempts to divert the land for various purposes, albeit public. Such moves, however, have been widely disapproved, owing to the institution’s rich heritage.

Founded in 1902 as Victoria Orphanage and Technical School in commemoration of Queen Victoria, the institution has nurtured several generations of orphans.

Temporarily lodged in an old workshop, it was shifted to the palace-like abode seen today in 1905, donated by the sixth Nizam Mir Mahboob Ali Khan.

A legend says that the Nizam had meant the building for his residence, and titled it ‘Mahal-e-Saroornagar’, but was dissuaded from the project after he sighted a gecko which was considered inauspicious. The lizard, nevertheless, proved lucky for the initial batch of 59 boys and 84 girls, all orphans.

“In those days, parents or relatives would just abandon the children on the footsteps. The police too brought unattended children from the streets,” said Srikar (name changed), a staff member of the home.

Dhanalakshmi was one such child who was dropped off at the home in mid 80s by her maternal aunt.

“VM Home was my home till I passed out in 1996-97. It gave us the skills to survive and the will to live. After I finished my studies and got a government job, my marriage too was performed by the members of the home,” Ms. Dhanalakshmi shared.

An older staffer recollects that children of Nawabs too enrolled as day scholars and pursued education alongside the orphans. He remembers from his childhood, a horse-drawn carriage bringing a Nawab’s child to the school.

Nehru’s visit

The name was changed to Victoria Memorial Home, after a visit by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1953, who suggested that the word ‘orphanage’ be dropped. His accolades for the home still remain, framed, inside the home.

In 1994-95, it was converted into a regular residential educational institution, and now has 625 children, 500 of them girls. Most of them are children of single parent.

“Mostly girls are brought to us, because parents choose private schools for boys,” says Srujana (name changed), another staff member.

Each year, about 60 to 70 students pass out from the school. Boys are sent away to social welfare residential hostels, and girls, to the care of Women’s Development and Child Welfare Department, where they pursue higher studies.

Cent per cent result

The school spares no effort to see that every student passes out. Cent per cent result has been the norm for the past four or five years.

“Our teachers get down to their duties as early as 5 a.m. daily when the study hours begin. Else, the government could shut down the institution on the pretext of bad results.”

Living quarters were built for the staff within the premises. Two years ago, a hostel for the girls and a kitchen-cum-dining hall too were built with money from sub-plan funds. But there stops any initiative from the State towards the development of this institution.

Hostels lack basic amenities. When admitted, each child gets an aluminium trunk, which is replenished with four pairs of uniforms every year, and toiletries every month.

Boys’ quarters in the main building are a grotesque sight with dozens of trunks lined up across a single hall, a sick child or two lying among them. Not a shelf to keep the bags or books!

First floor unsafe

Classrooms are big, but devoid of furniture. First floor of the building had to be abandoned after being declared unsafe.

“Repairs were done when it was under the Roads & Buildings Department, but stopped after it was declared a heritage building,” informs Srikar.

The building is set apart by its architecture, which is a revival of the Indo-Sarcenic or Osmanian architecture in Hyderabad after a period of European influence. A mosque too was built inside the premises.

It won the INTACH Heritage Award in 2003. Rectangular in shape, it is 420 feet in length, 285 feet in width and 32 feet in height, with huge spacious rooms and a courtyard.

Building needs repairs

Anuradha Reddy from the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), points out that while the building is structurally sound, it is in dire need of repairs.

Recently, the building was visited by a team from the Police Department, reportedly to evaluate its use for the Commissionerate. “They were talking about shifting the children to a wing of the building, and having the rest for the Commissionerate,” says Srikar.

The home is now governed by an Executive Committee chaired by the Minister for SC Development (SCD).

A GO issued in 2008 mandates that the entire area of VM Home be developed as a “model educational-cum-rehabilitation centre for orphan children” comparable to Hyderabad Public School, and named after Jawaharlal Nehru. Classes should be increased up to plus-two, with CBSE syllabus and English medium, and accommodation should be increased to 5,000 inmates. No land should be parted with for any other development purposes — a stipulation conveniently forgotten with the regime change.

Officials from the SCD admit that had there been any proposal from the department for the home’s development, the government would have thought twice before planning for land diversion. There were none.

Proposals rejected

The department, nevertheless, has been regularly warding off requests from various departments for allocation of land, on the grounds that it was a trust property, and that the objectives of the Nizam Endowment clearly indicate that the gift was for educational purposes. Revenue records too state that the land belongs to ‘Yateemkhana’.

A few recently rejected proposals include construction of a sub-station, a reservoir and a bus depot. The government, nevertheless, is determined, and takes shelter on the pretext that land had been leased out to a private company earlier, and the same can be repeated for public purpose now.

Special Chief Secretary in-charge of SCD, Ajay Mishra, has informed that the proposal of Police Commissionerate is seriously under consideration, and a meeting too was held by the Chief Secretary in this regard.

Land of great value

“We aired our view, and the government is examining the conditions under which the earlier leases were given. The land is of great value in terms of real estate, and establishment of police headquarters will help ward off encroachers,” he says, while assuring that the children will not be thrown out.

However, Mr. Mishra denied the knowledge of any proposal to build a hospital there, as mentioned in an order by the Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department.

Principal Secretary, Health, Rajeshwar Tiwari, maintains that the mention of the VM Home in the order issued by him merely indicates the location, and not the actual survey number. He, anyway, does not rule out the possibility of the VM Home lands being used for the hospital.

“We leave it to the Ranga Reddy District Collector to choose an appropriate site,” he says.

(With additional inputs from Yunus Y. Lasania)

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