Tikiapara
Tikiapara is an area in Howrah, West Bengal, India. It is close to Howrah Station.[1]
Tikiapara also has a railway station by its name. There is a big railway colony built during late nineteenth century along Tikiapara railway station. It is managed by South Eastern Railway. The station code is TKPR. It is the next station of Howrah. The most attractive place of Tikiapara is the "Bellilious park". It is a flood-prone area.[2] Although no express trains stop at this station all local and passenger trains stop at Tikiapara.
There is also a large slum area along the tracks of Tikiapara. Youngsters and children are largely involved in drug peddling, rag picking and petty robberies. However, some Christian missionaries including Missionaries of Charity and other NGO have taken initiative to educate children and provide alternate source of income through selling jute and paper bags to people.[3][4]
Tikiapara is a region of mixed culture with Muslims community forming a majority of its population. Generally, Tikiapara can be divided into two parts i.e. north and south Tikiapara with Belillious Road intersecting it into two uneven parts.
The oldest educational institution of Tikiapara is Howrah Muslim High School which is serving the basic requirements of primary, secondary and higher secondary education. The medium of instruction is basically Urdu. However, English and Bengali are also used as second and third language. There is no particular science stream school in an around Tikiapara. Other educational institutions of Tikiapara include Sir Syed Ahmed High School, Tikiapara Muslim Girls High School and some other primary schools. The future of English-based education is being nourished under the tender roofs of Samaritan Mission School and Rebecca Belilious Institution, initiated by notable social worker Mamoon Sir. The institution has been granted the status of a High School and efforts are on to concretize this idea of establishing a school having all three streams- arts, commerce and science. Apart from that, there are also many private coaching classes available to impart quality education to local students. Among them, the most prominent Urdu medium private coaching is Advanced Tutorials.