Child rights body issues guidelines for hostels
Proposal also stipulates that hostels can’t charge annually
NEWDELHI: The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Friday proposed to issue guidelines for hostels for children, specifying fee payment schedule, diet, therapy to deal with stress, a move aimed at addressing the increasing incidence of suicide by students, especially IIT and medical aspirants.
The draft guidelines, which come under the administrative control of the Women and Child Development Ministry, will apply to coaching institutes, private and government schools, madrasas and ‘ashram shalas’ or schools for tribal children. The commission has invited public comments on the proposed guidelines.
According to draft guidelines, hostels can only charge fee monthly and quarterly and not annually.
They cannot charge any capitation fee. Officials said most of these hostels used to charge fee for two years at one go.
“At coaching institutes, we have seen how parents pay a hefty fees at the beginning of the academic session for the entire year and students are not able to withdraw mid-session because of the money invested and eventually commit suicide,” Kanoongo said.
There should be ample recreational facilities for students to reduce their stress levels and the specifications are given for their dormetreis and even playground. For bringing greater transparency, hostels will also have to make public the number of seats they have and administrative details about them.
A candidate appointed as a hostel superintendent will have to produce an affidavit that he or she has never been convicted under Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation amendment) Act 2016, and Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012.
Learning from the experience at coaching institutes such as those in Kota where many IIT-aspirants have committed suicide, the NCPCR has also laid down steps to be taken to deal with mental health of students such as employing trained counsellors as well as making provisions for “individual therapy”.
Specifying the minimum nutritional standards, the guideline recommends 115 gms of chicken per child once a week, 120 grams of dal/rajma/chana per head per day, specified amount of curd or butter milk and other food items.
“We have fixed roles, duties and qualifications of hostel staff. We have also fixed the minimum infrastructure required, including dormitories and toilets,” Priyank Kanoongo, member, RTE and Education, NCPCR said.
According to the draft guidelines, authorities have to prepare diet scale and daily routine of children.
The guidelines provides for ensuring nutritional food for the children. The quality of food will also be checked every day.