India's capital city of Delhi is once again in the news for all the wrong reasons.
On Thursday, a student at a private school in east Delhi was found dead inside the school's toilet, and his family has alleged foul play in the murder.
According to reports, the boy was found dead on Thursday morning inside the toilet of Jeevan Jyoti Senior Secondary School in Karawal Nagar. He was taken to a nearby private hospital where he was declared brought dead.
Preliminary investigation revealed no injury marks on his body, a senior police official told the media, however, the boy's family claim he was beaten to death by some students inside the school toilet. CCTV footage obtained shows some students entering the toilet, but it is not immediately known if they are involved in the boy's death.
So far, three people have been detailed in connection with the boy's death, reports indicate.
Dismissing allegations of foul play, the school's management claim that the boy was suffering from diarrhea, which ultimately led to his death.
This case is similar to the death of Pradyuman Thakur, the seven-year-old student from Gurgaon’s Ryan International School who was found with his throat slit. That incident gave rise to widespread protests from parents urging the school's management to assure their wards' safety.
This led to District Inspector of Schools PK Upadhyay ordering all school managements to submit their security and safety plans.
The Delhi government also issued schools a 117-point checklist to ensure student safety in their premises, and said violation will not be tolerated.
"The checklist has been designed to encapsulate the minimum standards of school safety to emphasize zero tolerance against any violation in this regard. Practicability of implementation and monitoring has been kept duly in mind," a senior official of Directorate of Education was quoted as saying by PTI.
Securing boundary walls with grills, CCTV surveillance, maintaining records of every entry into the school and restricting visitors are some of the points mentioned in the checklist.
"All toilets should be well lit and have easy release lock from inside and no lock from outside. There should be no deployment of male staff in toilets for primary classes and all toilet visits of students up to Class 2 should be supervised by a lady caretaker," the guidelines state.
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