Cops want background checks on school staff

Keeping in mind the rising number of child sexual abuse cases, the Mumbai police is considering making background checks mandatory for contractual and temporary staff.

The move is being considered as in January this year, a nine-year-old was sexually assaulted in a prominent school in Dadar. The arrested accused was an employee in the canteen of the school.

A senior officer in the police force revealed that all police stations had been given strict instructions to take cognisance of the increasing number of cases registered under the POCSO Act.

“The number of cases are going up because more people are reporting them to the police. But we also have to look at reducing the number of cases that happen, especially in educational institutions,” he said.

One of the measures the police is looking at is a background check of the staff employed by the institutes. “We are already in talks with many schools and colleges and have asked them to start verifying and submitting details of the contractual staff they hire. These include security staff, bus drivers, canteen workers, peons,” he said.

The police has also asked schools to ask these employees to submit proper documents and in turn hand these over to the police. While for now, this will be restricted to contracted workers; it may extend to regular staff too.

The high court had in January said the school education department should look into installing closed-circuit cameras in schools, especially, those that that are government aided. Recently, senior police officers and zone DCPs had taken to visiting schools and meeting with principals and teachers to look at ways to ensure safety of students.

“We will ask school boards to submit a report of the steps they have taken in this direction,” he said.