P. Thenmozhi’s wait at Korukkupet bus stop has only become more stressful. Until the last academic year, she spent anxious moments reaching school at Tondiarpet on time, depsite the the distance that need to be covered being less than six kilometres. As a first-year student of Queen Mary’s College now, she leaves home at 7 a.m. to make sure she reaches college by 8.20 a.m.
On August 15, Thenmozhi and many other children from the neighbourhood raised the issue of poor bus connectivity from Korukkupet at the Children Nagara Sabha meeting.
They submitted a representation to the municipal councillor.
Members of Arunodhaya Centre for Street and Working Children, which has been facilitating such meetings at the ward level, say poor public transport affects girl students the most.
“The only bus that comes to the stop, 44C, is packed, with boys hanging on the footboard of the bus. How do we travel by this bus?” asks Thenmozhi.
At Korukkupet bus stop
While some skip classes, many are forced to shell out extra money to travel by an autorickshaw.
N.S Santhana Mary, coordinator for Zone 4, says on an average, there are 100 children in each of the wards 41, 47, 37 and 53. It was a collective representation as most students are dependent on public transport. “44C is the only bus that comes in the morning packed and after that we do not see it,” says Santhana Mary.
There is route number 157 that goes via Basin Bridge to Red Hill but that is not of much help to the student community. “There is also 44 but that is seen once a while,” she says. At the meeting, children said their parents were refusing to shell out ₹ 60 to take auto and reach the closest stop at Tondiarpet where more bus routes are available. “Some schools punish students if they are regularly late to school,” she says, adding that many of the students study at Maharani Chennai Higher Secondary School and KCS School, both in Tondiarpet.
Other issues
Lack of playground in the neighbourhood and drainage mixed with water were a few other issues children represented to the officials at the meeting. These sabhas are held in November, July and August.
