BANGALORE: City Police Commissioner M N Reddi, who has been criticised by private school managements for ‘impractical’ guidelines issued in the wake of the rape of a 6-year-old student, emphasised that the guidelines were a “non-negotiable condition in providing safety for children”.
Speaking at a workshop, ‘Child Rights Protection in Schools’, on Wednesday, he urged managements not to consider the guidelines as penalty but to view them as stakeholders.
“Child safety has to be enabled, not enforced. We have to be prepared to deal with these aberrations in society,” he said.
Reddi called for schools to have a vetted child safety plan to be implemented in a phased manner. “If there are difficulties in implementation, talk to authorities and make modifications to do what you can. But to sit back and say this cannot be implemented is simply not acceptable,” Reddi said.
School managements can discuss with the police and the Education Department officials the deadline for implementing the guidelines, Reddi said.
Umesh Aradhya, Chairperson, Karnataka Commission for Child Rights, stressed the importance for counselling and more awareness on the POCSO Act.
Speaking at a meeting called to address concerns of school managements with respect to implementing the guidelines, Reddi observed that it was high time that all stakeholders thought about basic safety measures for children. When the guidelines were issued, school managements said they were put together hastily.