Bhopal: Rape with kid in school bus; schools slow on adopting safety measures, panic button missing 

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Leading schools in the city have begun to enhance security in school buses after the alleged rape of a three-year-old girl and subsequent inspections by police and school education department authorities. 

Nevertheless, during a visit to certain leading schools, no panic button was found in the buses despite categorical instructions from the government authorities to install them in buses by August 1, which were registered by December 31, 2018.  

In fact, during the visit, awareness among students and some attendants of school buses regarding the panic button was low.  

To check the ground reality of school buses, Free Press team visited some leading private schools. 

When contacted, the principal, Campion School, Athens Lakra, said, ìWe have been sending a teacher in school buses with children even before the incident took place. Though we run an all-boy school, all students are equal to us.î

When asked whether they installed the panic button in buses, he said, ìPanic over panic button started after this unfortunate incident. We are trying to get them installed but itíll take time.î

The visit to a school situated in BHEL, Govindpura, revealed that every bus had a woman attendant. 

Some students, however, said their school started providing women attendants after the incident. The buses did have CCTV cameras in them. Nonetheless, Free Press team was not allowed to get inside the buses. 

When asked about the panic button, a woman attendant said, 'We have installed everything in the bus but when the same query was posed to the students, they said they had no clue what a panic button was. Another student said, ìNo, there is no such button in the buses.' 

(contributed by Minal Tomar and Anamika Pathak)