School principals claim that they hire the best transport services ensuring all safety measure for their schools. "The safety of our students has always been our priority and we never compromise with that,"says BK sharma, principal at a Delhi-based school.
On Monday, six children died when a school bus, with 37 students on board, met with an accident on its way home in Tennessee, United States. In the wake of this incident, parents, teachers and bus transport authorities in India too are concerned over the lack of road discipline and the consequent accidents on Indian roads. The accident has made parents wary of sending their children in school buses.
"I got really worried after reading the news on a website. I immediately asked my 10-year-old son if he feels comfortable while travelling on his school bus," said Shanta Singh, a resident of Mayur Vihar, New Delhi.
Several other parents are wary of sending their wards in school buses. "I even asked the principal of my daughter's school when we met during parent-teacher meet, last month, to make sure that the school vehicles have seat belts to avoid any accident,"said Purva Sharma, another parent in New Delhi.
According to Nalin Modi, a Mumbai-based school bus owner, "Most of our school buses in the city follow the policy implemented by state government. The policy for safety measures doesn't mention seat belts in school buses. And if at all the government plans to bring about this change, then new school buses will have to be manufactured with seat belts. The old school buses cannot be modified. Also, some times, the distances are short, so there is no need for seat belts. There is a speed governor installed in all the school buses that does not allow any bus to speed beyond 40 km."
School principals claim that they hire the best transport services ensuring all safety measure for their schools. "The safety of our students has always been our priority and we never compromise with that,"says BK sharma, principal at a Delhi-based school.
Anil Garg, Chairman, School Bus Owners Association, Mumbai said, "Maharashtra has the best school bus safety policy, which is followed by all the school buses in the city and state. The school bus policy has no mention of seat belts as of now. But some of the school buses in our city do have seat belts. Earlier the policy has made it mandatory to have seat belts, but many objected to it fearing that children would play and harm each other with seat belts. If the safety measures are not followed then the RTO doesn't allow us to ferry children. So most of the school buses follow safety measures in the city and state. We are fighting with the government to make small school vans to follow the school bus policy compulsorily."
School teachers too expressed concern over the safety of children in school buses. "Seatbelts should be made mandatory in school buses just like the government has made it in cars,"said Riya Verma, a teacher at a private school.
Rohan Bhat, Chairman, Children's Academy Group of Schools, Mumbai said, "I don't think it will be feasible as children of different age groups travel in school buses. Still some of the school buses in city have seat belts. Also in a city like Mumbai school buses run at a particular speed limit instructed in the policy. There is a mechanism in the bus which locks the bus if the driver tries to speed up. As a safety measure we undertook safety drills and found that it was time-consuming and dangerous for children to jump from a height of 4 or 5 feet emergency doors. After we fitted a ladder under the emergency door, the time taken for evacuation reduced from four and a half minutes to one and a half minutes."
Arundhati Chavan, President of Parents Teachers Association, United Forum, Mumbai said, "I don't think all school buses can be considered safe for our children as many are still not following safety measures prescribed by government. The regional transport office claim they are training school bus drivers on safety measures, but there is no proof of it. We have also made a petition to the state government to stop small school vans that ferry children that are also not safe for our school children."
Transport Bus policy
According to the transport policy it is mandatory for every school to form a transport committee that will look into matters of safe transportation of school children, transportation fees and identification of bus stops. It will be headed by the Principal and will have one representative of Parent Teachers' Association (PTA), a Traffic or Police Inspector of the area, Inspector of Motor Vehicles or Assistant Inspector of Motor Vehicles of the area, Education Inspector, representative of bus contractor and representative of local authority. It is mandatory for the committee to meet at least once in three months before the commencement of a semester. The committee will also be required to verify documents of the vehicle like registration certificate, certificate of fitness, certificate of insurance, permit, and pollution under certificate, driving license, fire extinguisher and first aid kit.
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