Safety Guidelines for School children (16-11-2014) Following the recent order taken out on safety of school children by the District Magistrate as part of combined efforts of Gurgaon Administration and Gurgaon Police to ensure safety of all school children in Gurgaon, DCP-East Naazneen Bhasin said ‘Congrats to all Gurgaon citizens who actively participated in this exercise. This was driven by all of you collectively. Parents are now empowered to play a key role in safety of their children, so their issues are represented and resolved.’ Gurgaon Police had initiated this exercise through an event in August attended by 600 people, which included over 250 school principals, concerned parents, NGOs, members of police/civil administration, all pooling ideas on improving safety of children at schools. Thereafter, based on feedback from many quarters, the School safety guidelines were finalised and have been shared on the Gurgaon Police website. The recent order contains salient points of the detailed Gurgaon Police document. Odette Katrak, a social activist and parent who played a key role with Gurgaon Police in bringing out the guidelines says: ‘This was an urgently needed measure in the context of increasing incidents happening all over. Some schools take the safety aspect very seriously, but there are others who do not, or schools that wish to, but do not know where to start. The detailed safety guidelines document on the website gives them a ready checklist of what to do, so they can fulfil their responsibility of keeping children safe”. The guidelines focus on simple, preventive measures that every school should take with a focus both on minimizing risks as well as equipping children to handle them in a confident manner. While the focus is largely on preventing child abuse, it also cover risks children may face due to physical, structural or other hazards. Many mishaps can easily be prevented with just a simple system in place. Mr N B Nair of Uniworld City who attended the seminar sharing the guidelines comments: “It is a great positive effort from Gurgaon Police side to bring together all those interested and concerned about finding solutions to a very important social issue”. DCP(East) added: “Our guiding principle is ‘parents to be empowered, schools to be sensitised’ and through it we hope to make every school in Gurgaon a completely safe zone for children. Schools have a week to have the Committee in place and start taking preventive measures. Meanwhile, we urge both schools and parents to read the guidelines document from website, which provides clarity on several issues. In case of any violations, parents can inform the police station and an FIR will be lodged and follow up action taken, bearing in mind that we are adopting a zero tolerance approach as far as safety of school children is concerned”. Ruchika Sethi, a parent said: “I think I speak for all parents in saying that it is better to prevent a crime that have to call in the police to solve it later, and are very glad that Gurgaon Police has taken this initiative, with particular attention to children with special needs, as they are especially vulnerable. It will help bring all schools to a level which ensures basic safety of all children”
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 07:57:13 +0000
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