Badlapur school chose cover-up over helping parents file complaint: State child rights panel chief

Mumbai: The Badlapur school, where two young girls were allegedly sexually abused, preferred to cover up the crime instead of helping their parents file a police complaint, said Susieben Shah, chairperson of Maharashtra State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, on Wednesday.

The alleged crime by a male attendant created a volatile situation in the town of Thane district on Tuesday, with protesting parents and locals crippling rail services and clashing with police.

Shah stressed the urgency of the matter, saying that the alleged sexual abuse of the two kindergarten students is a clear case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act.

After learning about the incident, the state child rights panel chief said, she contacted the Thane District Child Protection Unit about the parents’ concerns.

“They (child protection unit) took them to the police to file the complaint. When I asked the school management about the case, they tried to cover it up. I even asked them why POCSO provisions should not be invoked against the school management,” said Shah.

She said if the school management had promptly alerted the police, the chaotic situation in Badlapur could have been avoided. “The issue arises from the parents being made to wait for 11 hours.” Despite being apprised of the alleged sexual attack, the principal “chose not to contact the police”. “Instead, she went to the school management,” Shah said, calling the episode a “terrible state of affairs”.

Every district in the state has a child protection unit under the Women and Child Development Department. There is also a Special Juvenile Protection Unit in every police station, she said. “All the systems, units, and committees are in place. We all must make collective efforts to make the system work effectively,” she said.

Shah also said she would recommend a “structured procedure” for educational institutions to avoid such situations in the state in the future. “The state should implement such procedures and implement them strictly,” she said.

Referring to an earlier episode of alleged molestation of students of a Thane school by a bus attendant, Shah recalled that she had then stressed the need for mandatory police verification of teaching, non-teaching and contractual staff in educational institutes.

The alleged molestation had taken place on February 20 when students had gone to a mall in the Ghatkopar area of Mumbai on a private bus.