Schools to implement child safety guidelines from this session in Jaipur

With an aim to ensure safety of school children, all government and private schools in Rajasthan's Jaipur have been asked by the government to implement child safety guidelines from this academic session.

The guidelines have been drafted by the Department of Child Rights in consultation with school principals here.

A provision of child safety audit has also been made in 'Jaipur declaration-2018' which was prepared by the department in consultation with the principals of 20 government and private schools and with the feedback of parents as well as students, Shruti Bharadwaj, additional director of the department, told PTI.

The initiative was taken after a seven-year-old boy in Ryan International School in Gurgaon was killed last year, she said.

There are several guidelines of the Supreme Court and government about child safety in schools but it is often seen that these are not followed properly," she said.

A provision of child safety audit has also been devised in which schools will have to form a child safety surveillance committee and appoint a child safety audit officer.

The audit officer will prepare a report after assessing several parameters like transportation, toilets, abandoned rooms, recruitment process of teachers and their verification, entry of other staff to classes, installation of CCTV cameras among others, she said.

She said that a provision of audit by a third party may also be made in future.

Besides, the document asks the schools to nominate a child safety officer to look after children in school buses.

The document contains directions for schools, code of conduct, check-list for child safety, details of help line numbers, transport department's guidelines for schools to hire vehicles for children, duties of schools both in Hindi and English.

It also has pictorial information for children about discipline, awareness of sexual abuse and "good touch" and "bad touch", health and hygiene, she said.

Initially, we have formed the guidelines for government and private schools in Jaipur and will implement in other districts later, the officer said.