Supreme Court to frame comprehensive guidelines to ensure safety and security of schoolchildren

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it would frame comprehensive guidelines to ensure safety and security of schoolchildren, and ordered compilation of norms formulated by the Centre and states for its consideration.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra, also comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and D Y Chandrachud, was hearing several pleas and has asked all stakeholders to give their suggestions for comprehensive compilation and posted the matter for further hearing on December 4.

It asked advocate Suchita Srivastav to study the existing guidelines and consider suggestions of stakeholders, including the Centre, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), state governments and other parties concerned, and file a comprehensive report.

On October 9, the Centre had informed the apex court that it had issued guidelines and advisories to all states on safety and security of schoolchildren and that it had a limited role as its guidelines are to be enforced by the states.

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Earlier, the Supreme Court in July 2017 had severely criticised the Union government for treating court orders with disdain while pointing out that the Centre had taken no action on its order on September 19 last year seeking guidelines on disaster management to make schools safer.

Howere, many parents are of the opinion that the biggest problem is not the lack of guidelines but of proper implementation and enforcement by the authorities. Parents and educators are of the opinion that there must be awareness and communication about this sensitive topic.  Another important suggestion is to have a separate committee in the schools that solely focuses on monitoring the behaviour of teachers, staff and students to address all threats to child safety in schools and elsewhere.

This story is uses parts of the story originally published here.

Image source – India CSR, used for representational purpose only

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