How safe are our children at school? Going by recent instances as examples, the answer is unlikely to be in the affirmative.

It has been just over ten days since a 7-year-old child was murdered inside his school in Gurgaon allegedly by a school bus driver who tried to sexually assault him.

We are yet to recover from the shock of this incident that news about another similar crime is splattered across newspapers.

This time the state is Rajasthan and the victim is an 18-year-old girl from Sikar district who was gang-raped by two men including the director of her school and another teacher of the same institution.

So, what is it that we are missing out on? Each time there are such incidents, there’s a huge furore that eventually fizzles down after a few days or when the ‘breaking news’ shifts to some other occurrence.

But the problem remains, with not many thoughts being spared on the safety of children in educational institutions.

Let’s take the latest instance of the Sikar case. The accused teachers not only did gang-rape the student, they also tricked her family into conducting an abortion when she became pregnant.

We can probably attribute this to the fact that her family was not much literate and didn’t have any idea that the teachers, on whom they trusted the safety of their child would turn out to be her assaulters.

But you don’t need to be a sleuth to find out that these are not stray incidents of sexual violence inside school premises.

Even if we take just the instance of Rajasthan, state government data shows that in the last three years, 56 cases of molestations by teachers have come up in the state.

In all these instances, the accused was the same person who was entrusted by the parents of the victims to protect their child.

What more? The real travesty lies in the fact that till date not even a single teacher has been convicted in all those 56 cases by the court, which reflects the problems within our judiciary.

So, if you are a parent who is scared stiff at the aftermath of these gruesome incidents, here’s one word that you should be intimately acquainted with.

Yes, I am talking about POCSO, which stands for Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the one law that encompasses all the aspects of sexual crimes against kids.

Passed in 2012, POCSO deals with cases of sexual violence against kids and teens below 18 years of age.

Apart from bringing all types of perverse behaviour such as inappropriate touch or even watching or collecting child pornography under the ambit of cognisable offences, the POCSO Act also bats for a speedy trial in such cases.

However, unfortunately there’s very little awareness about many provisions of the act among the public.

Do you know, that there are regular workshops which are supposed to be organised by district administrations in schools and colleges to spread awareness about the POCSO Act?

You can actually make a school stand on the dock over the fact that it hasn’t done proper background check of all its employees to make sure that they don’t have any criminal record.

The POCSO Act also advocates pressing of charges against the people who although not directly involved in the crime knowingly or tacitly tries to conceal the offense and tries to tamper with the evidence.

That means that if I am aware about a child being abused but haven’t cared to intimate the authorities about it, I am as guilty as the person who has molested the child.

Even as the Ryan International school administration is facing a lot of flak over the incident, few are seeing the rather worrying lesson that the incident has for us all.

If a child can be molested and murdered inside such a reputed school inside the NCR, what chances do kids studying in schools situated in a rural, remote areas have?

The least that parents can do at the time of admission of their children in schools is to enquire about the steps taken by the institution to make the premises safe for the little ones.

Back in 2015, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had directed all schools affiliated under it to ensure that the POCSO Act is complied with through special measures and initiatives.

If at any point it appears that the schools haven’t adhered to these guidelines, the parents must immediately report the matter to the board it is affiliated with and also authorities such as the police.

It will do a great deal of good to the parents if they stop seeing the POCSO Act as just another law and understand that it is the best option that we have to fight and prevent sexual violence against children.