Implement Supreme Court guidelines on school buses safety

The Commission observed that in most of the accidents involving school buses, it was found that either the school buses were "not road-worthy or the drivers were untrained, without license or not according to the guidelines of Supreme Court". 

Taking serious note of school buses allegedly violating the Supreme Court's guidelines on safety of children, the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights today issued directives to transport officials asking them to ensure compliance of the apex court's recommendations.

Commission Chairman Sukesh Kalia, in a full commission meeting today, observed that "it was matter of great regret that District Transport Officers (DTOs) were not seriously checking the school buses".

The Commission observed that in most of the accidents involving school buses, it was found that either the school buses were "not road-worthy or the drivers were untrained, without license or not according to the guidelines of Supreme Court".

The Commission, according to an official release here, asked DTOs to ensure that all school bus drivers must have relevant driving license and they should fulfill all the conditions laid down by the Supreme Court in this regard.

The Commission also directed that there should be a qualified attendant in the buses throughout the journey.

Most schools yet to follow anti-child abuse laws

A day after a class VIII student of a Vanasthalipuram school was allegedly molested by a teacher, it appears that many city schools have failed to ensure strict compliance of the mandatory Protection of Child from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act, 2012. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued fresh guidelines to curb incidents of sexual abuse in schools, but experts say that these directives exist merely on paper.

The CBSE circular says that every school needs to have in-house induction sessions for teachers on gender sensitisation, counselling facility for students, school complaint committees, complaint/suggestion box and CCTV cameras. However, rising number of incidents in the city clearly shows that schools have not enforced these guidelines.

"There are 122 CBSE affiliated schools and 1,800 state board schools in Hyderabad. Most schools lack financial aid to set up infrastructure like CCTV cameras to curb sexual abuse on campus," said Srinivas Reddy, president of Telangana Rashtra School Managements Association.

"Taking measures is clearly not enough since school managements need to keep vigil on how effective these steps are to keep female students safe," Reddy added, raising fears that the day may not be far when male teachers won't be recruited at all due to rising sexual abuse cases in schools.

According to data from the State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR), about 1,500 cases were reported over the past one year, out of which 90 were serious offences. SCPCR officials said that it is mostly physical education and physics teachers who have been charged for sexual abuse. "Sexual abuse complaints are mostly received from CBSE schools," an SCPCR official said.

To foster gender equality, CBSE has instructed schools to conduct programmes for empowerment of girls. "Discrimination is the root cause for any kind of abuse. Schools need to go beyond counselling sessions to identify the problems students face," said G Dakshinamurthy, convenor of Forum for Protection of Values in Educational Field. "Many male teachers drag their household frustration to schools. Because of this, several girl students become victims to sexual abuse," he added.

Haryana government to organise three day training programme on 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao'

To ensure effective implementation of the ambitious 'Beti Bachao Beti Padhao' programme, Haryana government will organise a three-day state level training programme for master trainers here starting from April 8.

An official spokesman today said the training programme will be organised by Women and Child Development Department, Haryana, in collaboration with National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, New Delhi.

All functionaries of Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and all stakeholders, including State Master Trainers of education field, Law, Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), District Child Protection Unit (DCPU), State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) and Middle Level Training Centre (MLTC), Indian Medical Association (IMA) will participate in the training programme.

The BBBP scheme, being jointly implemented by education, health and women and child development department, is aimed at the prevention of gender biased sex selective elimination and to ensure survival and education of girl child, he said.

While giving details of the training programme, he said on April 8, the Director, National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD) Dinesh Paul would address the introductory session about District Magistrates' Guidelines.

HC seeks answer on kids in U’khand jails

Taking suo motu cognisance of a report that appeared in TOI on March 20, the Uttarakhand high court on Tuesday asked the state government to submit a reply on how 42 minors came to be lodged in jails in the state. The state has been asked to file a response in the matter by March 26. Although some of the minors may since have become adults, they were children at the time they were lodged in jail.

The case was taken up by the divisional bench of Chief Justice KM Joseph and Justice VK Bisht.

The State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (SCPCR) had identified 42 children in a 2013 report and said that all of them had been kept in jails meant for adults even though at the time of the crime they had not attained 18 years of age.

Ajay Setia, then chairman of SCPCR, conducted inspections in all state jails and highlighted these facts in a report by the panel.

"I welcome the decision of the HC. It is a very good step, though it comes a little late," said Ajay Setia, whose term ended in December last year. The position of SCPCR chairman has since been vacant.

Under the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000, a minor convicted of crime should be sent to a juvenile home, not a normal jail. Of the 42 children found lodged in jails, the largest number, 14, were in Sudhowala jail in Dehradun district; eight were in Roorkee; 12 in Haldwani; four in Haridwar and four in Pauri.

In November last year, Ajay Setia had written a letter in the matter to the state governor, chief minister and Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand high court.

Social activist Jaswant Jangpangi of Didihaat, Pithoragarh district, on October 29 last year, had written to the SCPCR chairman saying two inmates of Haridwar jail, Gagan Singh, born in 1990, and Jagat Singh, born in 1992, were convicted of murder in 2005 and sent to jail, when both of them were teenagers.

SCPCR rescues three minor labourers

Close on the heels of Operation Smile, wherein 200 child labourers were rescued from the Old City, child rights protection officials conducted a raid at a plush gated colony, Whisper Valley, on Sunday and rescued three children working as domestic help. 

“It has become a common practice for private agencies to pick up children, especially girls, from backward states like Jharkahand, Bihar and Orissa and deploy them to Hyderabad,” Achyuta Rao, member of  SCPCR told CityTAB. A Class II dropout, Baruva was picked up by Ranchi Jharkhand Placement Centre and Vishwari Placement Services and was deployed to work for one, A Krishna Kiran. 

SCPCR cracks whip on another school in Raipur for conducting screen test

Cracking whip on another school, state commission of protection of child rights (SCPCR) on Saturday raided a private school and found school conducting screen test of students of parents for admission in Class 6th.

Talking to TOI, Shatabdi Pandey, chairperson, SCPCR, said, "Acting on a tip off and following several complaints from parents, I along with my team member Simi Srivastava, education officers and police went at around 8.30 am to check if the private school Krishna Public School was conducting screen test. We found about 40-50 students and their parents were sitting in classroom with question papers in hand and were writing test."

The team when entered school and inquired, they were told that school management was 'interacting' with parents and denied them entering the classroom. But police and SCPCR team barged in the classroom and accused school of misleading the team with wrong information. Immediately the test was called off.

According to parents, this was the third screen test that was being conducted while few had complained SCPCR about school taking undue advantage of parents seeking admission in schools. "Parents had complained that they were being harassed and were asked to go to another school for admission, which is illegal and violation of section 13 (1) of Right To Education Act."

No loos in 38% schools across country

About 38% schools in country do not have girls' toilet and 40% lack boys' toilet. 54% schools are running without boundary walls and 14% do not have drinking water facility for students. This was revealed in a survey conducted by national Right to Education (RTE) forum.

Schools having toilets don't maintain and clean them properly resulting in increased dropout rate, especially among girls. The report said that number of children who cannot recognize numbers till nine from standard II has increased from 11.3% in 2009 to 19.5% in 2014 while percentage of standard V students who can read at standard II level has increased from 46.8% in 2012 to 48.1% in 2014. An Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2014 report says "in some states like Bihar, Assam, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra there is visible decline in reading levels over the last 5-6 years."

According to the survey, only 10% schools in country are meeting norms of RTE Act and over one lakh schools are on the verge of closure for reasons like students not coming to schools even after admission, community not co-operating with schools and lack of teachers. About 8.32% schools are being run depending on a single teacher.

In the stock taking convention on status of implementation of RTE Act held in state on Tuesday, state RTE forum expressed concern over closure of 1,700 government schools in Chhattisgarh this year while national RTE forum demanded access to quality education for poor children. "It's because of poor quality of education and absence of basic facilities that students refrain from going to schools. And due to less number of students, now, government is shutting down schools. It's one of the major concerns in state," said Gautam Bandhyopadhyay, convener, state RTE forum.

As per several survey reports of ASER, DISE state's quality of education is low which has led to higher number of school dropouts. "What we have studied is that there are larger number of children in schools than ever before but they are not actually being "educated". Arguably, RTE Act seems to have therefore delivered more a right to "schooling" than "education", Gautam said.

In last five years, major concerns in state were unattended grievances. Grievances of 547 schools were finally presented with signatures of 92,000 stakeholders to state commission of protection of child rights chairperson Shatabdi Pandey.