Child welfare panel issues summons to 3 pvt schools

After complaints of sexual harassment surfaced at a top private school in KK Nagar, Chennai, there were several such complaints brought to light by alumni and students of other institutions in the last one week.

Tamil Nadu Commission for Protection of Child Rights had already issued three summons, including one to the management of PSBB School, three more notices were issued on Tuesday, including one to a premier school in Adyar.

Sources from the committee said that apart from issuing summon, notices were also issued to an institution at Kelambakkam on the outskirts of the city and another school at Namakkal district following complaints of alleged sexual harassment by teachers.

The school managements have to appear before the committee and explain their position on the alleged incidents of sexual harassment. Seeking anonymity, a senior official from the committee said that soon after a sexual harassment case was exposed involving a commerce teacher, several students, alumni and parents have started lodging complaints, some of them over the phone, on sexual harassment at various schools.

However, the official said that the child rights panel has decided to issue summons only the cases that were prima facie genuine. The official also pointed out that most of the schools have not constituted child protection and monitoring unit or cell involving children, parents, and panchayats or and municipal councils.

“Many such units that were on paper were not maintaining records of children needing care and protection, or reported cases of child abuse to the police or other authorities concerned,” he added.

He added that in a bid to complete the cases with regard to children’s care and protection, the State government had recently issued an order for the constitution of two more Child Welfare Committees (CWC) in addition to the existing one.