Heritage lovers and parents are pitted against each other in a campaign for and against the demolition of a 156-year-old colonial era building belonging to the St. Joseph’s Anglo-Indian Girls Higher Secondary School here.
The school management is reportedly planning to pull down the building to replace it with a modern structure with more facilities in tune with the times. Built in 1862, the school is one of the oldest in the city, set up to empower girls in the Malabar region.
Principal Sr. Nidhisha told The Hindu on Sunday that the decision to demolish the building was taken in view of safety concerns. She also claimed that the existing structure lacked facilities to house the increasing number of students. “There were only around 300 students when the building was constructed. Now, it has gone up to 1,800,” she said.
The principal added that the equipment meant for making classrooms hi-tech could not be used for lack of facilities. “There is leakage in many parts. Students complain that the staircase and floors, made of wood, shake when they walk on them,” she said. According to her, the management had thought of building an extension earlier, but the plan had to be dropped.
Meanwhile, a group of heritage lovers and old students have objected to the move, saying that the possibilities of renovating the structure have not been studied properly. Ayesha Mahmood, an alumna of the school, said that the management was obsessed with razing the building without assessing if it could be revived, restored, and conserved for posterity. She claimed that architects from the National Institute of Technology - Calicut had examined the building and ruled out any immediate danger. Ms. Mahmood said that the history and heritage of the building had not been documented too. She has started an online petition on change.org in favour of restoring the building. The petition has already received nearly 3,000 signatures.
Addressed to the Archaeological Survey of India, the petition claims that the restoration of the building could be more financially viable compared with pulling down the existing structure and constructing a new one.
At the same time, Some parents have jumped on the bandwagon with another campaign supporting the demolition, saying, “Vested interests taking advantage of the nostalgic vulnerability of our ex-students to scuttle the infrastructure development plans by spreading disinformation is discernible.”
There is division in the parent-teacher association (PTA) too. PTA president Sulthan said that a majority of members were supportive of the demolition proposal, and that a few were opposed to it.
