The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the States and the Union Territories to implement the Centre’s guidelines on safety and security of children in schools and asked the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to coordinate and monitor the implementation of the guidelines and seek status reports.
Noting that the Centre has notified the guidelines on the safety and security of children in schools, a bench of justice BV Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh directed the Central government to send the copies of the guidelines to the Chief Secretaries of the States and the UTs Administrators.
The top court’s direction on the implementation of the guidelines came on an application by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan which had sought the enforcing of the guidelines in the wake of the recent incidents of sexual assault on children in some schools, including Badlapur in Maharashtra.
Appearing for the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, senior advocate HS Phoolka told the court that only five states have implemented the Centre’s guidelines for the safety of the children.
The matter is pending since 2019, when the top court had issued notice on May 6, 2019.
Stating that the safety of the children is being compromised and they are being subjected to “sexual abuse and assault” due to the failure of the state/UTs to notify the guidelines, the NGO said, “These guidelines have been developed for fixing the accountability of the school management in the matter of safety and security of children studying in government, Government-aided and private schools.”
The guidelines were framed by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) in consultation with the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).