Trained specialists to ensure child safety on school buses

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As children become increasingly susceptible to the many dangers in the world, largely resorting to their own devices to get by, while parents grow busier, schools are stepping in to fill the gap. A supervisor on each school bus is the latest initiative to ensure child safety.

The prospect of kidnapping, murder, abuse and accidents is growing every day and all anxious parents can do is make sure their children are well strapped in.

Each school bus will have one trained child care specialist on board to ensure the safety of the children, even while they are travelling to and from school each day.

While this is the idea, schools have their own sets of policies, including providing supervisors with special mobiles to use on the job, with the phone numbers of all the parents stored in the database.
“The supervisors will have to call the parent when the bus is nearing the stop, to make sure that the child is not left unaccompanied,” says Santosh Vaz, Founder, trustee Janodaya. An initiative by Bhagirathi Travels, the supervisors have been trained by Janodaya.

"When we looked at our industry, we realised that 99.9% of our employees are men, which we want to change. Also, parents are worried by male conductors misbehaving with children on school buses, which is how this idea came about," says Neil Joseph, Director, Bhagirathi Travel Solutions Pvt Ltd.

The supervisors have been trained in first aid by the Red Cross, fire safety by the Fire Department, traffic rules, regulation and safety by the Bangalore Traffic Police, child rights by Meena Jain of the Child Welfare Committee and personality training and grooming including how to maintain their physical appearance.

“The supervisors should know how to deal with epilepsy, fainting, snake bites and other illnesses, as well as be well versed in road safety, traffic regulations and fire safety,” says Mr Joseph.

“The need arose from the dangers of kidnapping, which are great when the child gets on and off the bus. Many children come to the bus stop alone early in the morning, or are accompanied by a grandparent,” says Ms vaz.

“Schools have wanted women drivers for a long time,” she adds. Moreover, the supervisors will also be given a compulsory spoken English course, which will be conducted after the children are dropped off in school in the morning. With schools recognising the need for women drivers, the next step is to initiate them into the school bus system.