Mumbai: Colleges want SOP for students' safety

Colleges ask govt for specific guidelines after MOS for higher education sends letter asking them to amp up security on campus and send report

Colleges say most of them are already taking extra efforts to ensure students' safety on campus. Pic for representation

While schools are already being grilled over their safety measures for children, colleges and universities have also been asked to fall in line and take targeted steps to ensure students' safety and submit a report to the state government within a month. But since no specific measures have been established, colleges are asking for a standard operating procedure (SOP) to bring uniformity, so that implementing stricter measures would not be an issue at individual college levels.

Letter says
Ravindra Waikar, minister of state for higher education, has written a letter to the secretary of the higher education department in this regard. "Not only is the number of students increasing in colleges and universities, there are several problems that students are dealing with including sexual and other harassment and security threats…This calls for a dire need to implement certain safety measures to ensure students' security," states Waikar in the letter.

While the letter does not list out any specific measures, it has asked institutes for a report within one month. Colleges have demanded a SOP to make it easier to implement safety measures.

Already taking efforts
According to colleges, most of them are already taking extra efforts to ensure safety but it is important to have detailed guidelines by government so there won't be any opposition. "Colleges keep taking steps by bringing regulations on restricting use of mobile phones inside campus. But since there is no government order on it, it is not easy for colleges to implement at individual level," said the principal of a reputed South Mumbai college.

Dr. Dinesh Punjwani, principal of National College in Bandra, said, "We have the entire campus secured with trained security personnel from professional agencies. We are taking care of the security inside the campus, but it is important to ensure safety outside it, too. There are so many unauthorized structures and anti-social elements in and around colleges across Mumbai. There should be some guidelines on those too."

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