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To further enhance the safety and security of students, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) has decided to set up an integrated control and command unit to monitor live feed streamed by closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras that have been installed in municipal schools.
In view of the ongoing unrest over the sexual assault on two minor girls at a school in Badlapur, the state government has issued fresh set of guidelines to ensure children's safety in all educational institutions.
The guidelines include- preference only to female support staff for taking care of children up to six years of age, compulsory installation of CCTV cameras and reviewing footage at least thrice a week, thorough background checks and character verification of all non teaching staff, such as security guards, bus drivers, and cleaners. placing grievance boxes, reporting any inappropriate incidents involving students within 24 hours. MBMC’s education department has started sending out notices to all 384 private educational institutions to ensure that the government guidelines are religiously followed.
"Educational facilities hold the immense responsibility of creating a safe haven for learning and development. Apart from sensitising our school staffers and conducting regular camps for students to spread awareness about crucial lessons like good touch-bad touch, thrust is on to deploy female house-keeping staff and security guards. We are also planning to set up an integrated control and command centre to monitor live feeds captured by CCTV cameras so that any suspicious movement or activity that is spotted can be responded to in real time for immediate action." said civic chief-Sanjay Katkar.
Currently, the MBMC’s education department runs 36 municipal schools imparting education in Marathi, Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati and semi-English mediums up to the tenth standard to around 9,000 students. Although all municipal school buildings are already facilitated with a network of CCTV cameras, the civic administration is in the process of reviewing the ground situation so that more surveillance apparatus are added where needed.
Meanwhile, the MBMC has formed a student safety committee tasked with reviewing the implementation of safety measures and addressing any incident of misconduct or harassment. The committee is led by the deputy municipal commissioner (education).
