Delhi: High-level meet on kids safety protocol on Wednesday

New Delhi: In a wake of growing incidents of child sexual abuse in schools, Union ministers Maneka Gandhi and Prakash Javadekar will hold a high-level meeting on Wednesday to develop a protocol for educational institutions to ensure safety of students.

Sources stated that, apart from the ministers, the meeting will be attended by top officials of the ministries of women and child development and human resource development as well as representative of the National Commission of Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), CBSE, NCERT and Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan. 

The two ministries will develop a set of guidelines and protocols for schools to ensure that children are “protected from any kind of abuse or physical and mental harm,” sources stated. 

Prakash Javadekar (Photo: PTI)

The meeting has been convened in the wake of the murder of a Class 2 student inside Ryan International School in Gurgaon for allegedly resisting sexual assault and the rape of a five- year-old girl in a private school in Shahdara.

It is understood that WCD minister Maneka Gandhi has also discussed the matter with HRD minister Prakash Javadekar over phone and recommended that women be employed as support staff, including bus drivers and conductors. The minister also stressed on the need to have strict norms for employing non-teaching staff, sources stated.

Mr Javadekar had on Monday called for more women employees in schools and employment of women drivers for school buses to improve safety for students.

The Supreme Court on Monday issued a notice to the Centre and the Haryana police on a plea by the father of the Ryan student seeking a CBI probe into the murder as well as framing of guidelines to ensure safety of children.