Cabinet tosses safety guidelines on school transport into freezer

Bengaluru: The tragic accident in Kundapur, Udupi, which killed eight schoolchildren on Tuesday morning, once again brought to the fore the safety of vehicles transporting schoolchildren.
While the education department has framed a charter of safety guidelines for schoolchildren in their institutions and also vehicles transporting them, and sent it to the government for cabinet approval, there has been no movement on the proposal for two months.
Sources said the rape of a six-year-old student at a private school in Marathahalli two years ago, catalyzed various government departments to frame different safety guidelines for children. Later, the high court gave directions to all related departments to have a common set of guidelines.
The safety guidelines framed jointly by the department of public instruction (DPI) and other departments were submitted to the government, but after two months, the government told them to hold district and taluk-level meetings regarding some clarifications in the guidelines. "We conducted the meetings and also submitted a report on the meeting. Now we are waiting for cabinet approval to implement them," said a highly placed source in the DPI.
The DPI submitted 10 safety guidelines for school buses, which include equipping them with fire extinguishers, speed governors, windows covered with mesh, and one women attendant who travels with the children, apart from six other guidelines.
Road deaths
According to Save Life Foundation (SLF), an NGO working towards improving road safety and emergency care across India, in 2015 alone, 12,589 children were killed in road accidents in the country, of which 394 were in Karnataka.
SLF founder Piyush Tewari said, "Such senseless tragedies should be unacceptable in any civilized society. Yet, in our country, road crashes kill five times more children than all crimes against them put together. We urgently need major reforms in the way our children are transported and mere guidelines will not do. The central government must pass a strong road safety legislation to enable strict measures, and states must establish a mechanism to enforce them with alacrity. This tragedy must not be ignored."
Transport commissioner Rame Gowda told TOI that last year, around 16,000 school buses were inspected and directed to follow safety guidelines as per the Supreme Court order. "We will soon start a drive against white-board vehicles (private vehicles) which transport children to schools and cancel the driving licences of such drivers," he added.