Disturbed with the recent incident of sexual assault on a nine-year-old girl in her school in Dadar, the Bombay high court on Monday suggested installation of CCTV cameras in schools. The court also sought to know what steps are being taken to ensure such incidents are not repeated in future.
The division bench of Justice N.H. Patil and Justice A.A. Sayed termed the sexual assault on the girl as ‘disturbing’ while hearing a bunch of public interest litigations on the issue of women’s safety in the city. The court was informed about the incident of a nine-year-old girl being sexually assaulted in the washroom of a Dadar school by a contract employee (19) on January 8.
The bench asked the education department of state of Maharashtra what steps it has taken and would take in future to ensure such incidents do not happen again.
The bench said, that a periodical vigilance is required to avoid such incidents. It also said, “This is very disturbing. Parents send their kids to school in faith that the school authorities and teachers will take care of them. What steps are the education department planning to take to ensure that such incidents do not occur ”
The court suggested that CCTV cameras should be installed inside school premises. The bench also said, “Make it mandatory at least for those schools which receive grant from the government.”
The court has asked the government to file an affidavit on this on January 22.
