In the the backdrop of the recently reported rape cases of students in school buses, Regional Transport Officer Jitendra Patil, along with representatives of school bus operators, traffic police and school principals, discussed the issue of the safety of school children at the mid-day office yesterday. The discussion led to several enlightening conclusions, the most significant being the realisation that the safety of children in school premises and also during transit to and from is the collective responsibility of parents, school, bus operators and other government agencies. Here are what some of the esteemed panelists had to say on a host of issues

Left to Right: Trinity school Principal Shakuntala Jaisinghani, Cityplus Publisher Jitendra Hiranandani, Director of Navkrishna Valley Mrugnaina Lunkad, Citylus mid-day-Resident Editor Danish Manzoor, Pune RTO Jitendra Patil, Police Inspector (Traffic) Ramchandra Dhage, Executive Director of ASK Foundation and a trained psychologist Barkha Bajaj

The ground reality
Jitendra Patil: Maharashtra is the first state to have an independent policy for school bus transportation. While formulating this policy, the government has identified the stakeholders, which are the children, their parents, school authorities, bus operators and government agencies. Every school must have a transport committee that organises workshops.
Barkha Bajaj: Worldwide, paedophilia is a big issue. We don’t have the sense of ‘duty to care’ towards the children. Schools also don’t consider sensitisation programmes seriously. The accountability of all stakeholders and prevention of crimes is the main issues before us.