"The idea is to focus more on schools in rural parts or interior Maharashtra where the lack of awareness is more acute,” said an officer from the education department. (Representational) To ensure that students are able to seamlessly resume their education that was hit during the pandemic besides ensuring their overall safety and holistic growth in an egalitarian atmosphere, ‘Sakhi Savitri’ committees will be set up across schools in Maharashtra.
A Government Resolution (GR) in the regard was recently issued by the school education department. According to the GR, the pandemic-induced closure of schools has had a long-lasting impact on children and their overall development.
“Due to heavy migration in the pandemic, there are serious concerns of children dropping out of schools. At the same time, social issues such as child marriages have started resurfacing. Considering these different issues, on the occasion of the 125th death anniversary of Savitribai Phule, (March 10) this decision was taken to form Sakhi Savitri committees to ensure protection of child rights,” stated the GR issued on Friday by Imtiyaz Kazi, Joint Secretary, education department.
“As schools are restarting, the government has decided to form committees of experts at local levels to identify different sets of issues and address them with a professional approach. The idea is to focus more on schools in rural parts or interior Maharashtra where the lack of awareness is more acute,” said an officer from the education department.
These committees will comprise representatives from school management, teachers, parents and students besides experts from sectors such as counselling, medicine, police and law. While each school is expected to have these committees, there will be panels at clusters of schools as well as at taluka levels to oversee the work of school committees and also to resolve complaints.
Besides ensuring 100 per cent attendance by identifying those who are out of school and bringing them back to mainstream education, these committees will have other complex tasks such as counselling of children and their parents, creating awareness against child marriages and ensuing that Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act is not violated in schools and surroundings places.
According to the GR, it will be the job of the school-level committees to create awareness about their existence so that affected parties can approach them. The committee shall meet once a month. These committees are also expected to raise funds through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities for education of children coming from socially or economically weaker sections of the society.
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