CHANDIGARH: After a six-year-old girl was beaten inside her classroom in Government school of Panchkula in Haryana by an eight-year-old student of the same school, the neighboring Himachal Pradesh Police has launched `School CONNECT-School Safety and Student Protection Initiative’ to strengthen child protection, campus security and coordination between police, educational institutions and parents. Meanwhile in neighboring Punjab Safe School Vehicle Policy is being implemented. As part of this initiative, DGP Ashok Tewari, today chaired an interactive meeting with principals and representatives of 27 schools at Police Headquarters, Shimla. He said that the initiative builds upon the successful Police–University Connect Programme extends structured police engagement to schools, with a special focus on preventive policing and safeguarding children from emerging safety and security threats. The meeting deliberated on several important aspects of school safety, including CCTV surveillance at entry and exit points, visitor verification, access control, staff verification and regular security assessments. Emphasis was also laid on preventing kidnapping, sexual abuse, bullying, harassment and exploitation, along with greater awareness about the POCSO Act and timely reporting of incidents. He said that recognizing the growing challenges in the digital environment, schools were sensitized about cyberbullying, online grooming, sextortion, deepfakes and other cyber threats. He stressed upon the need to protect students from chitta and other drugs was also highlighted, with a call for active participation in the Chief Minister-led Anti-Chitta Jan Andolan.
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