“The children coming to municipal schools are coming from zopadpatti areas [slums]” and “do not always come from good family background.”
Such “children are having bad habits ... to manage [them] in school is a big task. Apart from that the impact of movies is very high on these students and therefore there are fights.”
Those words are from an affidavit of the Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) filed in reply to a public interest litigation petition before the Bombay High Court. An irate court termed the BMC's statements “classist” and asked the civic body to state the basis for such remarks.
And BMC Commissioner Swadhin Kshatriya on Wednesday expressed regret at the corporation's remarks about slum children in such schools.
“It was not correct on our part to make such [comments],” Mr. Kshatriya said at a press conference. “The words were not appropriate. We will see that in future we will not do it.”
The PIL was filed by Sherbano Azad Khan, mother of a schoolboy who lost his eyesight after a classmate thrust a pencil into his eye. The court asked the BMC what made slum children more difficult to mind than those going to private schools.
