Delhi Diary: Parents Worry Over Safety Of Schoolchildren

By Shakir Husain Shakir Husain, Bernama’s correspondent in New Delhi shares his take from the Indian sub-continent. NEW DELHI, Sept 11 (Bernama) -- Are children safe at school? Parents of many schoolchildren are asking this question in India after a seven-year-old boy was brutally murdered for resisting a rape attempt by a school bus attendant. What appears to have sent shockwaves across the country is the gruesome nature of the killing and the fact that it involves one of the well-known private schools. Furious parents held protests against the Ryan International School in Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi, alleging negligence and demanded action against the school management. Police have arrested the accused, identified as 42-year-old Ashok Kumar, who said he slit the boy's throat with a knife after failing in his attempt to sexually abuse him in a school toilet. Media reports make the case look murkier. The accused's family says he has been beaten up to confess a crime he did not commit and the police have been bribed to protect "the real culprit". In another case within hours of the Gurgaon murder, a five-year-old girl was raped by a school peon in the Gandhi Nagar area of Delhi. The 40-year-old peon, who earlier worked as a security guard at the school, assaulted the girl inside an empty classroom around noon. It is widely accepted that schools attended by the country's underprivileged children are going to have poorer education and administration standards, but stringent adherence to the rules is expected at the schools serving India's affluent middle class. The disorganised Indian school system suffers from glaring class disparities and basic standards have not evolved to assure parents that their children are safe when away from home. The problem is not just about the risks of sexual abuse of children by unscrupulous staff. One of the biggest concerns is unsafe transportation. Children carrying their bulky school bags often travel in crowded and badly-maintained vehicles driven by reckless drivers. A mass circulation daily that ran the boy's murder as its top story had another news item alongside reporting the death of a five-year-old girl crushed under her school bus. Children can be seen packed unsafely in vans and three-wheeled autorickshaws or perched perilously on cycle rickshaws. Often for most children, their schools are located far away from their homes and precious hours are lost in travelling. Another big issue is what children eat at schools. Most parents struggle to pack healthy, nutritious schools lunches, and wherever canteen facilities are available, there are serious questions about hygiene and food quality. Not many people can afford to pay exorbitant tuition fees at top English-medium schools, which are seen as providing a secure future for children and offer better education and recreational facilities that most state-funded schools lack. India's market economy has created a huge lucrative sector of private education. While people may be willing to spend a fortune on their children's education, none would like to face the possibility of kids being abused at school. Whereas the gruesome murder case mentioned at the beginning of this article is clearly not a common occurrence, any laxity on behalf of school administration or parents does increase risks of untoward incidences. Institutions must know how to create a safe environment for schoolchildren. Statistics on sexual crimes against children in India are shocking. In 2015, nearly 20,000 children were sexually assaulted, according to government data. A few days ago, Indian police arrested a 54-year-old British man under the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The man, identified as Murray Denis Ward, faces charges of abusing blind children at New Delhi's National Association for the Blind. He was a donor for the association for nine years, according to reports. When oversight fails, things can go wrong. -- BERNAMA