Thane residents donate toys at TMC health centre | Mumbai news

Six-year-old Aarti Jadhav is happily playing with toys and driving around a toy car at the public health centre in Thane’s Ghodbunder Road. Unlike earlier, when she would start wailing at the gate of the centre itself, Aarti is happily waiting for her turn to get a polio dose.

Like Aarti, there are more children who are eagerly visiting the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) health centre for treatment or vaccination.

Residents from plush societies in the vicinity have donated toys for the children who visit the centre regularly. It was through social media that families and housing societies have come forward to donate toys and books for the children.

“Earlier, my daughter used to start wailing just looking at the gates of the health centre due to the fear of the injections. But now-a-days, we tell her ‘let’s go to the toy corner’ instead of saying hospital or health care centre, and she comes excitedly,” said Lata Jadhav, 36, mother of Aarti. The Jadhavs are residents of Anand Nagar slums.

The doctors and support staff at the health centre are happy that children from all strata of the society have started looking forward to visiting the centre.

“We are located amidst a heavily populated residential area and have children from both slums and high rises visiting our Out Patient Department and also for vaccination as well. Earlier, there would hardly be five or six children, but in the last few days, since the toy corner has been developed, there are more than 10 children at the centre,” said Khushboo Tawri, medical officer, TMC.

A fortnight after word spread about the need for toys, everything from soft toys and building blocks to cycles and children’s books were donated at the health centre.

Residents in the vicinity are keen to send more toys to further develop the toy corner. “It was through our housing society chat group that we came to know about the donation facility. Children overgrow their toys and there are often some that are less used than the others but continue to be in a good condition, so we donated those toys and are glad to see it is being used well by other kids as well,” said Kunal Dhoshi, 44, a resident of Rutu Enclave, Ghodbunder Road.

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