Schools take charge of students’ safety

The municipal school where the nine-year-old girl, who was the third child to be raped and murdered in Nehru Nagar, studied has taken the onus of the safety of their 4,500 students.

The municipal school where the nine-year-old girl, who was the third child to be raped and murdered in Nehru Nagar, studied has taken the onus of the safety of their 4,500 students.

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The school management ensures that students leave the school only with their parents. No other relatives are allowed to accompany the child.

“We are very strict about this,” said Lalji M. Yadav, education inspector of L-Ward.

There are ten schools of various languages that fall under the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s L-Ward that covers Nehru Nagar.

The girl, who went missing from near her house on June 6, was a student of the municipal corporation’s English medium school at Nehru Nagar.

Her body was later found in a shanty in a nearby slum on June 19.

Medical reports confirmed she was raped and murdered.

Teachers have been visiting the homes of the students to request parents to drop and pick up their children at least until the culprit is arrested.

If the parents do not turn up, the teachers call them. School authorities agree that many parents find it difficult to observe the new rule since most of them belong to the lower strata of society and are busy with their menial jobs to earn their daily living.

In such cases, someone from the school accompanies the child home.

Schools in the locality have turned into fortresses with a dozen police constables posted at the school gates.

The schools have also hired private security guards, who enter details of every visitor in a register.