Follow rules and law while transporting children

Mangaluru: Schools have started and along with this, the rage of vehicles transporting children has also started. Directions has been provided for the safe transportation of the children by mandatorily following rules and laws.

Most of the prominent educational institutions in the city have their own school vehicle. But not all children travel through this vehicle. Many children travel through hired private taxi or auto rickshaws. Since many years it has been alleged that the number of children being transported by the hired private vehicles was way beyond the permissible limits, and in this backdrop the city Police Commissioner called a meeting at the beginning of the school year which was attended by the representatives of the administration of all the educational institutions, officials of the education and transport departments, bus owners and representatives of taxi and rickshaw driver/ owner associations. The meeting included and awareness programme.

On this occasion, the guidelines provided by the Supreme Court regarding the safety of the children was informed to all the gathered. The aim of the programme was reduce school vehicle accidents and crime cases to as low as possible.

Making the school administration responsible for the safety of the school children, the Supreme Court create guidelines as per the advice of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and in 2018, sent it to the union Ministry of Human Resource Development and asked it to implement the same within 6 months. Accordingly, the ministry sent the guidelines to chief secretaries (education) of all the state on Sep 2018 and asked then to implement the same.

While speaking of the safety of the school children, the Supreme Court also created guidelines for the vehicles transporting the school children.

Guidelines

• School vehicles must be yellow in colour and also have sticker installed on them. If it is a hired vehicles then it must have “On school duty” board.
• First aid box.
• Grills must be installed across the windows.
• Name of the school and its phone number must be mentioned.
• There should be a separate facility to keep the bags of the children
• An in-charge for the children must be appointed for the bus.
• The vehicle must be installed with GPS technology.
• Transparent window pane.
• Complete information of the student.
• Driver’s details
• Installation of speed governor.
• Should possess fire-fighting equipment
• The vehicle door must compulsorily have a lock.
• The vehicle must not transport children beyond the permissible number limit; A child should not be made to sit on the lap of another child.
• The driver must have driving experience of at least 5 years.
• Person who has violated motor vehicle rules twice or more times in a year or has committed any other crime cannot be appointed as the driver.
• Those who have faced a case for over-speeding, driving under the influence (DUI) or rash and negligent driving cannot be appointed as drivers.
• The driver of the vehicle must wear a blue colour uniform and black shoes. For children with 12 years of age, only 6 children are permitted in an auto-rickshaw and 8 in an omni. For children above the age of 12, the number is limited to the seating capacity of the concerned vehicle.