Pune: Sawali Footpath School Transforming Lives Of Homeless Children

Shantanu Velhal

Pune, 8th July 2022: A transgender social worker, Amit Mohite (29), has started a ‘footpath school’ near Pune Railway Station for children living on the footpath. He started the school to educate these children for free and meet their daily basic needs through his ‘Sawali Social Foundation,’ a non-profit organization.

The footpath school is an initial stage for these children to at least start with their education. Around 18 children of different age groups come to this school daily, and six of them have been admitted to Rasta Peth Education Society and Lal Bahadur Shastri School until now.

Mohite has also started another branch of this school at Swargate and teaches at both of these schools from Monday to Saturday. The students are taught in both, English and Marathi, for their better understanding. Mainly, all the finance needed for this initiative is managed by Mohite alone.

Mohite said, “I came up with the idea of ‘footpath school’ two years back and started nine months ago. Being a transgender, people look at me with a different perspective and hence think twice before helping me out. However, if a man or a woman might have been working on this instead of me then they would have gotten enough help and support.”

“Unfortunately, this is not the case with me. Therefore, I urge everyone to help these children with any help possible. Personally, beyond education, I look after their daily needs like food, clothes, medications, and shelter,” he said.

He added, “I have tried in every possible way and am still trying to grab the attention of Municipal Corporation and the Government in this issue. I have also demanded free facilities for these children through many protests, but there is no concrete response from the administration to date.”