Varun Thakur, the father of Pradyuman, the seven-year-old child, who was killed inside a toilet at Ryan International School Gurugram, has approached the Supreme Court seeking formation of guidelines on the issue of safety and security of school children across the country.
Seven-year-old Pradyuman was found dead on September 8 inside the washroom of Ryan International School in Gurugram. While the bus conductor was initially arrested for his alleged role, it was later revealed through a CBI probe that a Class XI student had committed the crime.
The conductor was later released on bail.
Incidents over student safety have been highlighted more since the incident. On December 1, a four-year-old student from GD Birla School in Kolkata was molested by two of her physical education teachers, who were subsequently arrested. Parents had over the weekend staged protests, highlighting the high fee (Rs 60,000 per year) that was not converted into proper security for the students.
On Saturday, the principal of a Jharkhand school was arrested for molesting a upper KG student. He later confessed to the crime, stating it was a ‘small mistake’ and that there were ‘no intercourse involved’.
According to the NCRB, A total of 94,172 cases of crimes against children were registered in the country during 2015 as compared to 89,423 cases during 2014, showing an increase of 5.3%. Maharashtra accounted for 14.8% of total crimes committed against children registered in the country. The next in order was Madhya Pradesh (13.7%), Uttar Pradesh (12.1%) and Delhi (10.1%).
