There is nothing on the ground or in the air to suggest possible kidnap or child recruitment in the disappearance case of Don Bosco student Rahul Takhellambam till now. The only fact we have before us is that, the 12 year old Rahul left the school campus after classes at 12.15 pm and he did not turn up at the 3 pm assembly of the school boarding, which was about 50 metres away from the school campus and the missing report was filed by school authorities at 8.30 pm in the evening. There may be suspicions or suggestions, but this much are the facts. And one has to go by facts. Police investigations have revealed that the children were not usually escorted or marshaled by a school official when they walk from the school campus to the boarding. This brings into focus the issue of security of children staying in various boarding houses dotting the Manipur skyline. How secure are our children in the boarding houses? We want to flag this question before the authorities of school having boarding facilities, private hostels managed by parties other than the school authorities and before the parents whose children are staying in such boarding houses. In recent times, boarding houses and private hostels have sprung up in the schools and in the vicinity of highly publicized private schools. A question mark here. Who is responsible for regulating these boarding houses and hostels? In fact, no one knows and it is free for all. The question comes up every time an unseemly incident occurs in these boarding houses and hostels. JAC s will be formed, sit-in-protests will be staged, condemnations will pour in, student bodies and Meira Paibis will raise hell. But the issue of safety and security will be forgotten as soon as problem arising out of the incident is solved. The issue will simply be shelved and put away for future reference. It is not about the civil society groups alone, but the state government and its officials will also go back to their old routine once the uproar subsides. Instead of looking at issues in a holistic manner, we are dealing with the problems in a piecemeal way. This is one of the serious ailments confronting our society today. Preemptive measure or pro-active action does not find a place in our social dictionary. Our society has become so dull that we need to prodded and woken up every time a serious violation occurs. Our responses are very limited and so very short-term. Like for instance, when a serious violation of our rights our response would be disjointed. There is no such thing as a common response. Public response to issues has been reduced to condemnation through press-notes, sit-in-protests and limited rallies. And as such, state action has also become reactive where issues and problems are not analyzed in a holistic manner thereby resulting in adhoc measures. Whenever an unrest or uproar has subsided it will breathe a sigh of relief and will say ‘Good Riddance’ forgetting that the same issue will rise its head up again somewhere anytime. Coming back to the point, there is a genuine need for regulation in the various residential schools and boarding houses and hostels to ensure the security of the children staying there. The state government needs to frame guidelines for management of such residential schools and boarding houses including the provision for independent monitoring by local bodies. It is not only about security that we are talking about. The environment, living conditions, basic amenities and facilities, sanitation, minimum mess standards, hygiene, health care support system, disciplining procedures all these need to be taken into account while framing the guidelines. We need to go back in recent history about children being molested by boarding staff, undue punishment of child boarders, serving of unhygienic food and boarding fees not commensurate with facilities and eviction without notice etc while framing the guidelines.
Read more / Original news source: http://kanglaonline.com/2012/04/secure-boarding/