“Politicians need to go back to school,” Kailash Satyarthi

In the aftermath of the recent violence and rape incidents being reported in various schools across India, Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi has urged politicians to go back to school, as an ordinary parent, to assess and understand how schools can be made safe for children.

Satyarthi lamented the growing lack of safety and security mechanisms in schools, which leads to growing instances of rape, child abuse and molestation in school premises.

The Nobel Laureate said, “I urge all of the political community in the country to go to school as an ordinary parent. See things on your own, feel the environment, question them. Schools are supposed to be an institution of learning and a haven for our children. It should not be a place of torture.”

“Unless we do not wake up to the dire need to take strong action, our children will continue to suffer. We will fail to make India safe for our children,” he added.

He was speaking at the Bharat Yatra march which reached Chennai. The Bharat Yatra, launched by the Nobel Laureate on September 11 in Kanniyakumari, focuses on the need to ensure the safety, security and well-being of children across India.

It is the launch of a three-year campaign against child rape and child sexual abuse which is aimed at increasing awareness and reporting of the cases, strengthening intuitional response including medical health and compensations, ensuring protection for victims and witnesses during trials and increasing convictions of child sexual abuse in a time bound manner.