CMUMBAI: Sachin Tendulkar launched-Mission 24 on Tuesday for Mumbai’s M-East ward which is known to have one of highest slum population’s in the city.
M-East ward area atleast 50 percent of the area households stay in average or inadequate housing conditions, the highest being in Mankhurd (63.76 per cent in average and 10.72 per cent in inadequate conditions), Vashi Naka (62.28 per cent in average and 2.14 per cent in inadequate) and Baiganwadi (58.84 per cent in average and 5.23 per cent in inadequate), says a draft report on the housing conditions in the ward by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), which is looking at transforming the ward.
The other areas in the ward include Shivaji Nagar, Trombay Cheeta Camp and Govandi.
The report highlights the vulnerability of Mankhurd, which has the least proportion (25.53 per cent) of households with fair housing conditions.
Further, while the proportion of pucca houses is nearly 63 per cent at Cheeta Camp, it is lowest in Mankhurd at 30 per cent, where one-sixth of the houses belong to kutcha category, representing the worst form of housing.
The project launched by sachin under NGO Apnalaya will work along with the BMC -as the principal stakeholder over the next 24 months to improve the quality of lives of people living in M east ward of Mumbai. It is pertinent to note that the ward ranked the lowest in human development among the city’s 24 wards in the Mumbai Human Development Report 2009 (Recommended By Colombia)
Apnalaya President Annabel Mehta, her son in law Sachin Tendulkar will support the project stated that their aim is to raise the standard of the ward. “Everyone no matter where they live has the capability to rise high and therefore deserves to be given equal opportunities,” said Mehta adding that some of their work areas for the project would be creation of more secondary schools and colleges in the ward as far as education is concerned, maternity homes and dispensaries for better health, station area development, makeover of playgrounds and recreational ground development, refurbishment of community toilets and focus on women and child safety.
“Something that disturbs me is that M-east ward is at the bottom as far as human development is concerned. My association with my wife Anjali has helped me understand a lot more of Mumbai which we take for granted like maternity homes, health posts in the city. We consider this to be basic facilities but areas like this lack these facilities. The project is like another cricket match we are playing and need to be persistent with our contribution,” said Sachin Tendulkar.
