Are rules concerning children’s safety on school buses only for private schools?

BMC schools pay no heed to laws, ferry children without implementing rules

The Bombay High Court has time and again passed numerous orders for the safety of children. The HC has always considered the safety of children above all, be it in their homes or be in their school buses. The HC has always voiced its concern over the safety of children, who are ferried by a vehicle to their school and back to home.

In fact, the judges of HC have rapped private schools for not complying to the guidelines issued by the Union government, pertaining to school buses. Most often the private schools get a dressing down only after the government or the municipal corporations point out a mismanagement by them.

But surprisingly, it appears that the government and especially the municipal corporations do not "practice" what they "preach."

Interestingly, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) seems to be influenced by a popular saying "rules are not for the rulers", particularly its education officers, who think they are above law. It can be said so since one of its education officer himself has claimed that the guidelines framed by the Union government does not bind upon the civic body and its schools.

It would not be out of place to mention that the Union government had in November 2011 made some amendments to the Motor Vehicles (Regulation of School Buses) Rules, 2011. By means of these modifications, the government had imposed certain conditions on schools for ferrying children through school buses.

According to the amendments, any vehicle which has more than 13 seats, can ferry children. The law mandates the appointment of a lady attendant on the board and also the availability of first aide kit and fire extinguishing kit in the school bus. There are nearly 30 conditions like railing outside the windows of a school bus to ensure the child does not remove his/her head out of the same.

To ensure these laws are implemented in letter and spirit, an association has petitioned the HC through their counsel Rama Subramanian. This petition seeks compliance to the guidelines and the amendments by all schools, however, the BMC officials think the need not pay any heed to the laws since they do not come under the same.

According to Mahesh Palkar, the Education Officer of BMC, the laws regulating the school buses are only for private schoos and not for civic run schools. To substantiate his argument, Palkar contends that the children of civic run school are ferries by BEST buses, which are the "safest."

"The laws and the guidelines in this respect are only for private school buses. Our schools do not have dedicated or own bus services instead we hire bus service government undertaking - BEST. The public buses are comparatively safe than the private school," Palkar told Free Press Journal.

Not only this, Palkar thinks there is no need of a lady attendant on board for BMC school students, which also include girls.

"We do not require a female attendant since our BEST buses already have a conductor. And the other conditions like first aide kit, railings outside window etc are all for private school buses to comply. These laws are not applicable on us," Palkar claimed.

However, this approach of the BMC education officer has been trashed by advocate Subramanian. She said, "The rules are for all schools and there is no discrimination as such for private and public schools. Even the BEST buses, if they ferry school going children, they must abide by the law."