Schools across Mumbai are left unsettled after the news of an alleged sexual assault of two nursery kids at a school in Badlapur in Maharshtra's Thane district.
Many did not even want to speak on the issue to this paper. Either the principals were plain afraid or just didn’t want to stick their neck out. From those who spoke, quite a few schools resolved to take prompt action against incidents like these if ever they occurred and some others said they are improving the conditions in a comprehensive way, aiming to establish “confidential reporting mechanisms” and “POCSO training to all staff”.
Schools generally agreed that POCSO training should be given to all staff. “POCSO not only spells out the punishments for offences, but also sets out a system for support of victims and improved methods for catching offenders,” said Sunayana Awasthi, principal of Kanakia International School. “Moreover, there should be no male policy in all schools. If there is an emergency, a female staff member can accompany them,” she said.
The principals also felt that schools should establish confidential reporting mechanisms and involve parents in safety discussions. All this in a bid to inculcate trust from students.
Some schools have decided to mark the day in a different way in order to sensitise their students about the issue. For instance, the Greenlawns school plans to organise a ‘Black Thursday’ as informed by Caroline Vaz, principal. “All staff and students will wear black on Thursday commemorating the sad incident that happened at the Thane school,” she said.
Other schools spoke about fighting this united. Persis Z Wadia, principal at Maneckji Cooper School, said, “At this time all schools should stand as one.”
She said that to fight any such incident they have already put in place an internal complaints committee that can register “anonymous complaints” and have “both teaching and non-teaching staff to maintain neutrality”.
Apart from this, Early Childhood Association (ECA) and Association for Preparatory Education and Research (APER) put out an advisory that talked about making mandatory what they called “#3forsafety”. This included “1. Get police verification of all staff, 2. Train staff in GTBT and POCSO and 3. Train children in recognising GTBT and reporting it.”
Dr Swati Popat Vats, president at ECA-APER, said, “Schools have not yet taken a comprehensive approach to fighting this seriously. They know about POCSO, but think such an incident won’t happen to them.
“They only wake up when something really happens.”
NGOs that work in this area are also alarmed with the incident. Pooja Taparia, founder and CEO of Arpan NGO, said, “Many schools in India don’t have child protection committees in place that has been made mandatory by the government.”
She went on to say that “times have changed over the years. Earlier, schools used to believe that incidents such as these won’t happen in their school but as more incidents came to light, schools now started becoming aware”.
“However, there are still gaps that have to be filled towards a more holistic approach to prevention of Child Sexual Abuse, including teaching children personal safety, training staff and parents on CSA and POCSO as well as creating a child protection committee,” she added.
The city has been witnessing massive protests against the alleged sexual assault of two nursery kids at a Badlapur school.
