Duruelo playground paving raises a stink
By Ashutosh Shukla | Place: Mumbai | Agency: DNA
Several students of the Duruelo Convent High School, Bandra, are crying foul over losing their school hockey ground.
The ground, used extensively by hockey students, is being covered with paver blocks. What has irked the students and their parents even more is that this is being done despite hockey players from the school competing at the state and national levels.
“The school is doing this only for commercial gains, for the convenience of wedding organisers. Their sole intention is to make more money out of it,” claimed Sudhir Kamat, a parent of a former student. Kamat is leading the delegation of protesting parents, and claimed he was doing this because they (parents) feared individual victimisation.
He added, “The school has performed consistently well (in hockey), and the ground should be preserved.”
This year, Duruelo was the runner-up in the under-17 category of the inter-school state-level competition. Last year, it won the under-16 and under-17 state-level championships. Its players are amongst the prominent team members of the state, the other players being from Kolhapur and Nashik.
Secondary school principal Sister Dorette justified the move. “Of the 2,300 students, only the 25-30 students who play hockey are opposing it. We are doing this primarily for three reasons. One, to stop the rainwater seepage that is weakening the foundation of the building. Two, because other children want to play other sports, and three, to prevent respiratory problems due to dust,” said Dorette.
Dorette claimed that the paver blocks are being placed on the advice of the architects of the school. She, however, did not provide a contact number for the architects.
“Also, we do not have the money to maintain the ground and the building; this has been done from the MLA fund,” she said. “Why are parents complaining? Elsewhere, too, schools that have hockey teams do not have grounds. They play on concrete floors.”
Some parents, however, slammed this logic.
“It is common sense that if the children fall on the concrete floor, they will get hurt. Will the management take responsibility if this happens?” asked Balkrishna Jogu, whose daughter studies in Class 8 and is a hockey player.
Jyoti Parihar, whose daughter is in Class 7 at the school, said, “Schoolchildren often have no place to play. This is the only school that has a ground, and it’s converting it into a concrete floor!”
Nisha Nair, a former student and national-level player (who has also featured in Chak De India), said, “I think the decision is wrong. My sister and me, and many like us have done well in life by playing hockey. They should not place paver blocks the ground, as there is a dearth of good grounds anyway.”