MUMBAI: “I never thought I would see these in real life!” said Aniket Deshmukh. The 20-year-old student of Shishu Kalyan Kendra, Andheri, was talking about the mountains near Vishramgad, which he had seen on a recent hike; until then, he had only seen hills on television. Aniket was one of 16 students, aged seven to 25, from his school on that hike. All of them live with some degree of intellectual disability, and most of them had never got a taste of the outdoors before.
The hike was assisted by MahaBank Trekkers, a 30-year-old trekking group made up of employees and customers of the Bank of Maharashtra. “Every year on January 26 and August 15, we try to organise a trek with a social cause,” says Hiresh Chaudhary, a member of the group. “The kids were delighted and some even said that they learnt important life lessons related to teamwork, which was not possible inside the classrooms.”
Meera Phatarpekar, principal of Shishu Kalyan Kendra, said, “Our focus is to get [the students] a normal life and we undertake such activities under proper guidance of our staff. Every student is special in his or her own way and we screen them based on their limits and our experience with them.”
“The students were accompanied by eight staff members who knew their requirements, says Balaji Kamble, who has been a sports instructor at the school for 13 years. “Based on our earlier experience, and factors like health and other physical issues of the kids, we screened and selected 16 for this hike.” The school had first arranged suck a hike in 2012 (to Sinhagad, near Pune) which gave both staff and students the experience and confidence to cater to the students’ special requirements.
The learning was not one-way. “Even with what life had to offer them they had no complaints whatsoever,” says avid trekker Sanket Subhedar. “Their bond with their teachers was strong, like the one between a mother and her child, which you will not find in ordinary school. It was one of the most amazing trekking experiences that I will cherish for a long time.”
