Illegal cabs and vans plying schoolchildren blatantly flouting norms

New Delhi: Despite strict a policy in place for vehicles which ferry school children, parents claim that due to lower expenses, less time and shorter routes, they often send their children in vans – which flout norms and are unsafe – instead of school buses.

Van drivers, meanwhile, claim that the owner or companies which own these vans handle the licensing policies and the driver have no idea about these rules. "I don't know about any rules. When the company hired me as a school cab driver, the owner said he takes care of the technicalities," said Prasad Sharma, a private school cab driver, who added that at times owners force drivers to load in extra students.

The Delhi government has a School Cab Policy, formulated in 2007 to regulate monitoring of such cabs and take proper action against them if they violate norms. This law was amended last year and made more stringent.

Apart from being verified by police and having clean criminal records, drivers of school cabs are required to undergo driver training as well as refresher driving training. The vehicles are required to be fitted with approved speed control devices to ensure they do not exceed the speed limit of 40 kmph.

Recently, Delhi Police found that school cabs have been involved in numerous traffic violations and risk several lives.

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) stated that the van, involved in Thursday's accident, was a private one and had a white number plate. It was not authorised to ferry children to school, as it no safety equipment, the Commission further found.

Thursday's accident is not an isolated case where NCPCR has found that vans ferrying schoolchildren are flouting safety norms.

The Commission recently held a workshop regarding school transportation, in which they found that most drivers and other attendants in school buses were unaware of the rules and regulation.

"We have asked the concerned department of Delhi government and Delhi Police to take necessary steps," said NCPCR member Priyank Kanoongo.

More children than the available seating capacity are often loaded into schools vans, with little to no safety provisions.

Delhi Police, on the other hand, has found that school cab drivers have been playing with the safety norms and risking the lives of children.

Police data accessed by Millennium Post, regarding prosecution of school cabs, claimed that 151 prosecutions were recorded in 2017 for dangerous driving. This year, 48 prosecutions were recorded for the same offense.

1,192 prosecutions were recorded for not wearing seat belt last year, while this year the number is 250. "Permit violation was another problem with school cabs, as more than 180 prosecutions were done in two years," said a police official.

A senior official said that they visit schools during safety week and interact with officials to ensure safety of children.