Child Rights commission revives safety guidelines for school buses after molestation incident in Thane

As the guidelines will be declared on Wednesday, chairperson of the Commission, Susieben Shah, said, “The Supreme Court has already laid down a detailed set of guidelines to ensure safety of children on school buses. For example, school buses are mandated to have CCTV surveillance, there has to be a woman attendant on board when the bus is carrying children. Our inquiry into the Thane case revealed that the bus was rented through a private tour-operator and not a regular school bus, thus lacking adequate CCTV surveillance.”

Shah held a meeting on Monday with representatives OF school education department, educationists, parents, transport department and police to brainstorm on revival of the guidelines and ways to ensure effective implementation.

The guidelines will include Pocso awareness training to the entire school, right from the principal to the bus attendants accompanying the students in the bus along with Good Touch-Bad Touch workshops for students.

According to Shah, the revived set will also include vans and rickshaws which are playing with school children even as law bans it. She said, “Many parents are using them for convenience and affordability. But just because these are not considered as school vehicles, they cannot be left out from adhering to the set of guidelines.”

The commission will develop a mechanism to ensure effective implementation of the guidelines. “There will be committees comprising representatives from school education, WCD and transport department, and police who will ensure that guidelines are implemented by schools,” said Shah.