Standing tall amid international schools in the city today is Vanita Vishram, probably one of the oldest schools here. Started by Sulochana Desai in 1919 with the aim to educate girls, the school was inaugurated by Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
Desai was widowed when she was only 16. In a bid to engage her in some activity, her parents opened a library and she was given the charge of the librarian. “Soon, she came up with an idea of a school for girls. Though she faced lot of opposition from various quarters of the society, she went door to door collecting donation for the girls’ school,” said Bhadresh Jhaveri, superintendent of the school for last 33 years. While collecting donations, Desai used to request families to send their daughters to the school.
The school became functional in 1919. Both Gandhiji and Tagore were full of praises for the initiative and the vision of the founder. Other personalities like Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and Morarji Desai among others too visited the school.
“It was probably the only school then to have home science department where girls were taught sewing, cooking and home management. But, the department was closed down 10 years ago,” added Jhaveri. The school currently has 1,800 children in kindergarten to class 12. Situated in Raipur, this three-storeyed building has unique heritage architecture with jharokhas, arc-shaped doors, huge artistic pillars and also a cellar where sewing classes used to be conducted for girls.
Prior to being turned into a school, it was a bungalow. There is a small old temple of Lord Shiva. The idol of the lord was found during construction work for the school.
Over these years, the school has witnessed lot of change in its functioning and vision. Five years ago, it became a co-educational school. Today, every class has around 30% boys. “This decision had to be taken as it was very difficult to sustain the school,” said Manorama Munsha, trustee of the school. Munsha was a student of the school and later chose to become a trustee.
