Delhi schools must now get all their staff certified by police. Will it curb crime against children?

Delhi’s schools are scrambling to get their staff certified by the police. But they are not sure how helpful such verification will be in combating crime, especially against children.

In early September, a Class 2 student, Pradyuman Thakur, was murdered in Ryan International School, Gurugram, and a five year-old was raped in Tagore Public School in East Delhi. In the ensuing panic, state and central governments and even the Central Board of Secondary Education announced a range of measures they believe will make schoolchildren safer. Police verification – the process of checking residence and criminal antecedents, if any, – is a key measure.

On September 18, the Delhi government directed all schools to get the “character and antecedents” of all staff – permanent, on contract or placed by agencies – verified by the police. This option was already available but few schools used it, arguing it revealed little beyond criminal records. The existence of such records, in turn, is contingent upon schools or other employers officially reporting cases. Many choose not to in order to avoid the cost and hassle of litigation. “In fact, most will just get the employee to resign and close the matter,” said the principal of a private school who asked not to be identified.

Even where employees are required to be compulsorily verified, such as for permanent appointment in government, there is little faith in the effectiveness of the process. As the principal of a government school put it: “It is part of the paperwork.”

Character verification

Ashok Pandey, who chairs the National Progressive Schools Conference, an association of over 160 private schools in the country, pointed out that the Delhi police provides two types of certification – clearance certificate and verification certificate. “The first is little more than a check of the current address provided and can be obtained in a few days,” he said. “The second, for character and antecedent verification, is a more thorough exercise looking at previous records. The process is not understood and schools may have done one or the other.”

Ajay Vir Yadav, general secretary of the Government School Teachers’ Association, believes the “character verification” process for government schools is foolproof. “Candidates provide all the addresses they have stayed at over the previous five years,” he explained. “The police station with jurisdiction over each checks records or visits homes before submitting a report.”

Both private and public schools outsource some of their tertiary functions – security, sanitation, gardening, canteen service, driving – to outside agencies, upon whom they rely for verification as well.

Pandey’s school, Ahlcon International in East Delhi, had its support staff verified in 2014 but not the security guards or housekeeping staff. They are being registered now. The Indian School in South Delhi, which did not have any staff registered, is filling forms for over 150 people, including guards and sanitation workers. Government schools are collecting certificates from the security and sanitation agencies they have hired staff from but no guidelines have yet been notified for guest teachers.

Mobile population

“The agencies give us verification certificates which we file,” said Ameeta Mulla Wattal, principal of Springdales School. “But only established agencies do it.” However, even those, Wattal added, do not help much. “We find out where auxillary staff members live but little else,” she said. “We will not know how many times they changed jobs and why or whether they were dismissed. Staff placed by agencies change very frequently too.”

It is difficult even for government schools. BP Dhyani, principal of a government school in Trilokpuri, said two new recruits, a librarian from Manipur and a Sanskrit teacher from Rajasthan, applied over six months ago and are still waiting for their certificates. “Because teachers officially get two months to get certified, they keep pursuing the matter,” said Yadav.

For all that, Dhyani said, “it only tells us if they were involved in some crime that was revealed in an investigation.” Except most violations that take place in schools are not reported to police.

Low reporting

“Schools do not want to reveal what happened,” said a principal who asked not to be named. “Most, for instance, will not report corporal punishment even if they sack a teacher for it.” She herself compelled an ayah to resign after discovering she had forged the signature on a cheque, but did not report her to the police. “She was already losing her job,” the principal said. “But I did not write a recommendation for her.”

The principal added that schools avoid filing police complaints and court cases, and hiring lawyers. “Who has the manpower?” she asked. Besides, a criminal act is easy to report; propensity for crime, less so. “You may fear a situation will lead to molestation but you cannot do anything beyond placing the employee where they can be constantly monitored,” she said. “Or, you ask them to leave without reporting.”

Dhyani believes that effective implementation of existing guidelines – 18 have been issued by central government agencies alone – is enough to ensure safety of schoolchildren. “There is a range of guidelines for safety such as presence of women attendants on buses,” he said. “Recruitment guidelines pertaining to drivers and conductors, their training and education, should all be implemented too.”