Child Rights Commission to conduct survey in all schools

Kolkata: The West Bengal Commission for Protection of Child Rights (WBCPCR) has decided to conduct a survey in all the schools of the state to prepare a detailed report on safety of the students.

The step has been taken in the backdrop of the incident in which a four-year-old girl, who is a student of GD Birla Centre for Education at Ranikurthi in South Kolkata, was sexually harassed that has brought to light the lackadaisical attitude of the school authorities as surveillance cameras were not installed even after a similar incident had taken place three years ago.

Ananya Chatterjee Chakraborti, the Chairperson of the Commission, said: "If everything goes as planned, the survey will be conducted in schools under all the boards in the state. There will be a meeting regarding the same this month to finalise all aspects of the survey that will be undertaken in all the schools. There will be a discussion with the School Education department and subsequently the survey work will begin."

According to the chairperson, the survey will be conducted state-wide. Thus, non-government organisations also have to be engaged to assess the level of security arrangements for students in each and every school.

The commission will be sending its findings concluded in the survey to all the boards including ICSE and CBSE. Besides sending them its findings, the Commission will also gives its recommendations as it comes out in the survey for individual schools of the boards.

"The schools have to follow the recommendations and necessary steps would be taken if it is found that the recommendations are not followed," Chakraborti said.

There are teams comprising officials of the Commission that keep visiting different schools in the state in every week and till date they usually inspected the condition of classrooms, toilets and quality of midday meal, etc.

Now the Commission is taking up the step to assess security of students in each and every school of the state. After the survey report is out, during inspections of the schools, the commission will also keep a regular tab whether security aspects of students are maintained.

It may be mentioned that the survey that will be conducted, will also create awareness among the school authorities and they will be able to take up necessary measures to ensure safety of their students.

It may be also mentioned that the Commission is developing a cell phone gaming app, using which students would know the steps they need to take to combat or avoid facing an "odd situation" as it has happed in GD Birla Centre for Education.