Maharashtra deputy Chief Minister and Home Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Wednesday said the state government will ask schools in the state to install CCTV cameras as a way to prevent sexual assaults on girl students.
He was responding to a calling attention motion raised by the ruling BJP’s Uma Khapare in the Legislative Council. Khapare had asked the question in the context of an incident in Mumbai where a school girl was sexually assaulted by two classmates who were also minors.
“Some rich schools do have CCTV network. But we will try and instruct the aided and non-aided schools to set up CCTV cameras as a deterrent measure. It would naturally discourage some people from indulging in such acts,” Fadnavis said.
At present some big schools in the state have CCTVs. Aided and unaided schools will be instructed to install CCTV cameras in all schools as a preventive measure. This step will help to avoid such violence.
Some schools have on-site cafeterias and better facilities. Fadnavis said that such changes will affect the character and behavior of children.
A joint meeting of the School Education Department and the Home Department will prepare an action plan for this. The deputy chief minister added that sex education is being imparted in many schools and porn sites which are easily accessible on the internet will be banned.
Several schools have cafeterias around them and the ecosystem developed around schools should be assessed and its impact on the overall behaviour of the students need to be studied, he said. The state government will hold a joint meeting of school education department and home department and draw up an action plan, Fadnavis added.
“The good touch-bad touch awareness programme is already underway in many schools and it is like developing a sixth sense among girl students. If a person is luring them, they should be able to sense it and save themselves,” he said. The government is also trying to crack down on the easy access to pornographic content on the Internet, the home minister said.
