Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Madhya Pradesh State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (MPCPCR) has recommended that updated and working CCTV cameras and GPS trackers should be installed on school buses and the footage of the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) of the cameras should be preserved for at least 30 days. A female attendant, and if possible a female teacher, should be deputed for each bus.
These are among the recommendations included in the 13-point Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for ensuring protection and security of children on the premises of private schools and on buses that ferry them from and to their homes issued by the MPCPCR on Wednesday.
Brajesh Chauhan, Member of the Commission told Free Press that the SOP has been prepared in the wake of the recent incident at a private school in Bhopal.
The school should try to hire women drivers for school buses and should ensure that 75% of the teaching and non-teaching staff in pre-primary schools is female. Also, police verification of all staff members and drivers and conductors of the buses should be done once every year.
The SOP says that pre-primary and primary students should be told about good touch and bad touch every day after morning prayers and before the classes end.
It also says that all private schools should constitute ‘Bal Sahayata Evam Sujhav Samitis’ which should include three representatives of parents (two females and one male) of one student each from primary, middle and higher secondary classes and three students including two girls and one boy.
The Block Resource Coordinator (BRC) of the area, child welfare officer from the local police station and a representative of the woman and child development department should be included in the samiti. The samiti should meet at least once every month and the report of its proceedings should be sent to the district education officer and the MPCPCR.
A complaints/suggestions box should be installed near the main gate of the school. Important helpline numbers like 1098 and 100 should be painted on school buses besides, details of apps like Bal Bol MPCPCR.
Chauhan said that the copies of the SOP have been sent to the collectors and SPs of all districts of the state.
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