Since july 14, when the heinous rape of a six-year-old girl child of the upmarket CISCE-affiliated Vibgyor High School was reported in Bangalore, the city has witnessed a spate of child sexual abuse crimes. Over the past five months, nine cases of child molestation/rape have been reported within K-12 schools in the city. According to police sources, crimes registered under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POSCO) Act, 2012, have increased from 55 in 2013 to an astounding 175 this year.

Against this backdrop of a rash of child sexual abuse cases being reported within education institutions in the IT city, the Teacher Foundation (estb.2002), a highly-respected Bangalore-based teacher training and resource organisation and The Times Foundation (of the Times of India) organised a School Leaders Collective on the theme ‘Sane Ideas for Safer Schools’ on November 18.

The discussion forum attended by 120 principals, teachers and parents debated the feasibility and efficacy of the safety guidelines for schools issued by the state’s education ministry and the police. Among them: installation of CCTV cameras in classrooms, compulsory presence of female attendants in school buses, appointment of selected teachers as vigilance officers, photo-identity cards to parents and staff members, restriction of movement of bus and van drivers within school campuses and appointment of additional security guards. Since these guidelines were issued in end July, the city’s 10,960 private schools have been subjected to surprise visits by education department inspectors and/or police personnel demanding implementation of safety measures.

With a flood of solutions suggested by several organisations and government agencies, there’s considerable confusion about priorities and ways and means to combat the child abuse phenomenon in this once well-mannered city. And as if to add to the confusion, on October 1, the Karnataka state government issued a draft comprehensive Child Protection Policy (CPP), prepared with support from Unicef. The CPP draft, unlike the police and education ministry guidelines, does not mandate installation of CCTVs citing the inability of government schools to implement this provision. With the safety guidelines issued by the police at variance with those prescribed by the education ministry and CPP, delegates at the event complained of lack of clarity on the issue.

“Most private schools cannot afford to invest on CCTVs in all classrooms and school buses, and employ additional security staff, particularly since parents are unwilling to pay to cover these expenses. The state government must authorise only one department to issue safety guidelines and school managements must be consulted on what is affordable and feasible to implement. Most importantly, the same safety guidelines must also be implemented in government schools,” says Mansoor Khan, general secretary of the Managements of Independent CBSE Schools of Karnataka, and chief executive of the three DPS schools in Bangalore and one in Mysore.   

Even as the city’s private schools and state government are locking horns over the implementation of safety guidelines, at another event to mark ‘World Day for Prevention of Child Abuse’ on November 19, hosted by the CISCE-affiliated Inventure Academy in association with the Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness and Enfold Trust, 240 students from ten schools in Bangalore developed a child safety roadmap from the children’s perspective. The class IV-XII students from government and private schools presented a first-of-its-type Children’s Charter, calling for sensitisation of police personnel to child sexual abuse; self-defence workshops for students; parents’ participation; introduction of sex education and restricting children’s access to social networking sites and mobile phones.

“The ‘Our Safety Our Voice’ seminar provided children a platform to present their opinions on this issue which concerns them most. As rightly said by the children, safety is the joint responsibility of school managements, police, education department, teachers and parents — deploying constables on school premises or installation of CCTVs is not the solution. We will be presenting a copy of the Children’s Charter to the education minister and the police,” says Nooraine Fazal, founder-CEO of the top-ranked Inventure Academy.

Meanwhile as we go to press, to add to the confusion the transport department has shot off another set of guidelines on November 25 asking schools to form a School Cabs Safety Committee. By flooding schools with multiple safety guidelines suggesting expensive, impractical and quick-fix solutions, state government officials are unwittingly prolonging the status quo.

Prayank (Bangalore)