Safe transportation for kids Time to wake up, stakeholders

Jayanti Dutta Roy

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Safety and security don’t just happen; they are the result of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life free of violence and fear.”

— Nelson Mandela, Former President of South Africa

Children have been guaranteed right to education but to claim it, they need to first reach the schools — mentally sound and physically safe. However, there are myriad hindrances that they need to cross before they reach the temples of knowledge. One of them is the pupil transportation system (PIS), which is inadequate in our country, inefficient and highly unsafe. Still surprisingly, this remains a highly neglected area, left totally unattended by stakeholders — government, schools, society, researchers, academicians, transporters, school bus staff and, shockingly enough, parents. Schoolchildren face several inconveniences and unpleasant experiences twice a day are not empowered to report, raise voice and even notice the pathetic treatment.

There are about 200 schools and about 3 lakh children in the age bracket of 4-18 years in Chandigarh. Being a small but planned city, there are several schools established nearby all residential areas. However, due to several reasons — parents’ preference for some specific school, not getting admission in neighborhood schools, not getting preferred subjects in nearby schools — students still need to use the PIS to attend schools. There are schools in the adjoining cities of Mohali and Panchkula also. It is estimated that everyday about 1,000 school buses ply in Chandigarh to ferry approximately 35,000-40,000 pupils. Around 350 transporters are involved in this business.

Overloaded school vehicles are a common sight in the cityscapes. Maximising benefits leads the transporters to use old and outdated vehicles and to recruit school bus staff that is not trained, experienced and do not have required qualifications to fit the job resulting in disasters and grievous events of accidents, negligent driving or physical and sexual abuse — injuring, killing or psychologically scaring young lives every day. The recent horrifying incident at Sangrur in which four children were charred to death is another one in a long string of such accidents.

This is despite the fact that taking a serious note of the situation, the Supreme Court had issued guidelines for school buses in 1985, but their implementation depends upon the whims of the transporters.

The area of pupil transportation system is an interdisciplinary one as law and regulation, engineering, traffic, education, commerce, management, public health, human rights and ethics are intricately linked with it. Hence, a multipronged approach needs to be taken.

Some recommendations based on a research work done by the author to improve the PIS in Chandigarh are:

Communication — There is a complete lack of any platform where stakeholders can meet, discuss, argue, debate and finally come to a conclusion. The creation of such platforms is needed.

Negotiation — It is quite anomalous that while parents and students are the funders and users of the school bus service, the contract is signed between the school and the transporter. A mechanism needs to be developed through either parent bodies or some other neutral body which can help in negotiation of terms among schools, parents and transporters.

Arbiter/ombudsman — An arbiter or ombudsman to solve the issues.

School management — A mechanism has to be developed for an arrangement where the schools should not be allowed to get away without any accountability towards parents or students. Schools should conduct sessions for parents and students to discuss the issue of the safe PIS. Students’ mock drills should also be conducted regularly.

The contract and its terms and conditions should be transparent and openly accessible to all parents and should be uploaded on the website.

Transporter — The contract that the transporter signs with the school should be in strict adherence with the Supreme Court guidelines.

The transporter should have a clean track record of business, should recruit drivers and bus staff with clean antecedents and should be obligated to allow annual training to the bus staff to prepare them for the significant work they are doing. Spending money on awareness will be productive.

Antecedents of driver/ helper/ lady helper should go through police verification for clean police record.

Drivers/ helpers — Driver/helper should have at least 10-hour training on safe school transportation with inputs on duties of a driver/helper/ lady helper, Supreme Court guidelines regarding school buses, state regulations, Prevention of Child Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), moral responsibility for childrens’ safety and what to do in an emergency. The training can be funded by the transporters and schools.

Presently, the lady attendant is only a passive passenger in the school bus.

State Transport Authority (STA) — A document regarding ‘Law on school buses and school traffic’ available on www.chandigarhtrafficpolice.org/school.htm should be strictly followed. The STA should enforce the rules regarding licence and maintaining standards by frequent surprise checks. Many school buses change their routes, once they come to know that a check is going on, on a particular route.

Parents — Parents should be aware, alert, vigilant and assertive. Parents’ casual approach to whatever happens in their child’s bus is a dangerous attitude and this needs to be addressed. The phone number of the STA is written on the each school bus, however, STA hardly gets any complaints from parents. Parents should go through the Supreme Court guidelines and STA documents. They can even take turns to travel in the bus to check if things are alright.

Students — Students should be trained to safely board and deboard the buses and in simple etiquettes of co-travelling. School buses are notorious for being the places where maximum bullying takes place. Students, too, have a responsibility towards making the ride safe for all other students.

With everybody’s efforts, school bus travels can become a stress-free, enjoyable and joyous experience for all students.