E-Paper
Safety of students at risk for want of guards in Delhi’s municipal schools
While the East Delhi Municipal Corporation built security guard rooms at its schools around two years ago, not a single guard has been hired by the civic body till date to watch over its 354 primary schools, where more than 225,000 children are studying from nursery to class 5
The incident of a stranger entering a classroom and sexually assaulting two minor girls at a municipal primary school in east Delhi’s Bhajanpura -- the incident took place on April 30 but was reported only on Wednesday -- has once again brought to the fore the glaring absence of security guards in these schools.
While the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) built security guard rooms at its schools around two years ago, not a single guard has been hired by the civic body till date to watch over its 354 primary schools ,where more than 225,000 children are studying from nursery to class 5.
Vibha Singh, senior vice-president of the Nagar Nigam Shikshak Sangh,a municipal teachers’ association, said the guard rooms were set up around two and a half years ago but no guard was provided despite repeated requests from schools. “Incidents similar to the one in Bhajanpura have occurred in the past as well but the corporation has still not expedited the hiring of guards. Who will take the responsibility if something more unfortunate happens?” she said.
Singh, who is also the principal of an east Delhi municipal school, said the corporation expects the sanitation worker or helpers to also look after security but that is neither practical nor possible. “Sanitation staff will be busy cleaning the premises. They can’t be deployed at the gate. The fact that the civic body has constructed guard rooms without hiring guards shows that only those projects get expedited in which corruption is involved,” she alleged.
“The CCTV camera project has also met a similar fate with just 14 schools having CCTV cameras currently. Schools were asked to buy cameras using a sum of ₹10,000, to be provided to each school by the corporation, but the money was never sanctioned,” Singh said.
Another school principal from north-west Delhi said their school only has provision for a chowkidar (security guard) to look after the premises after school hours.
Manoj Tyagi, leader of the opposition in the EDMC, said the issue has been raised on several occasions, including the last budget session in January. “We had demanded that when funds to the tune of ₹4.5 crore have been used to build guard rooms, then guards must also be hired. Each guard room was developed at a cost of ₹1-2 lakh but lack of funds was cited when it came to hiring guards. This is a clear case of corruption,” he said.
A senior municipal official said the civic body has provisions for chowkidar (security guard) in municipal schools who are expected to take care of the property after school hours. “Peon or other school staff are expected to take care of the school premises, along with teachers and the principal, during school hours. No separate budgetary provision for hiring guards has been made and posts of security guards have not been sanctioned,” the official said, asking not to be named.
EDMC Mayor Shyam Sunder Aggarwal said that the problem of lack of security guards does exist and due to financial crisis the civic body has not been able to hire security guards. “We were not able to hire guards or install CCTV cameras as funds have not been provided to the agency. We are still not able to pay salaries of workers for over 5 months and our first instalment of basic tax assignment has not been released,” Aggarwal said.
Lack of security in municipal schools has led to multiple molestation cases and one rape case in Ashok Vihar 2008. The issue has also been red-flagged by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights. The show cause notice issued by DCPCR in 2019 stated that “it is a matter of serious concern”. “The school gate remains without security guards, making the… schools vulnerable to anti-social elements in the society…. This also means that children so young can leave the school premises unsupervised should the smallest attention lapse happen,” the notice to three corporations stated.
