POCSO: On August 30, the police arrested a 35-year-old attendant and booked a teacher, the school principal and the director of a playschool in Maujpur, North East Delhi, where a three-year-old boy was allegedly tied to a chair for hours and subjected to severe physical abuse.
The FIR includes charges of voluntarily causing hurt, wrongful restraint, sexual harassment under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and cruelty to a child under the Juvenile Justice Act.
The abuse came to light after the boy’s parents noticed severe behavioural changes, including an intense fear of the bathroom, night terrors and a sudden aversion to physical touch, as per the police complaint. A doctor discovered signs of physical assault, including swelling in both ear canals and multiple facial and arm abrasions, prompting the family to inspect the school’s security footage.
Systemic abuse
Although the school administration initially delayed access to the CCTV recordings and “demanded Rs 1,500” to view them, the retrieved footage revealed systematic abuse over three days in mid-August, as per the victim’s parents. The recordings showed the child being struck and kicked, having his ears pulled and being bound to a chair with an apron for nearly three hours at a time.
School staff allegedly attempted to justify the treatment by claiming the toddler was aggressive and threw furniture. However, his father explained that the boy, who is receiving speech therapy, was likely reacting to being restrained. The family also suspects inappropriate physical contact and plans to enrol the child in therapy to help him recover from the trauma.
Such incidents expose disregard for the safety checklist introduced by the Delhi government in 2017. To put matters into perspective, the government had yet again ordered a survey into POCSO compliance measures and Delhi schools’ adherence to the checklist in July. However, with a self-compliance clause in the directive, many private schools have fallen under the radar.
Widespread issues
As of July 27, a survey of 1,677 Delhi schools between July 13 and 24 found widespread compliance issues, with safety deficiencies detected in 790 institutions.
The initiative evaluated 790 state schools, 812 private schools, and 75 state-aided institutions using a checklist aligned with guidelines from child protection commissions and the POCSO Act. Deficiencies were uncovered in 270 state schools, 463 private schools, and 41 state-aided facilities.
The drive is slated to continue till all 5,633 schools in the region are inspected. “There were a lot of holidays in August, so that essentially led to us not being able to conduct the safety checks. We have to get done with our inspections when the schools are in session,” said an official apprised of the matter.
Safety checklist
The ‘Child Safety Checklist for Schools’ is divided into five core sections that address different dimensions of child protection and well-being.
Section I focuses on physical safety, covering structural integrity, building norms, fire and natural disaster management, electrical hazard controls, playground standards, water purity, laboratory safety, and transport protocols.
Section II covers emotional and personal safety, detailing trauma management, support for children with disabilities, medical emergency protocols, sanitation and hygiene, and measures to prevent child sexual abuse.
Section III centres on social safety by promoting social skill development, emotional management, peer relationship building, and anti-bullying policies.
Section IV addresses emergency preparedness, embedding crisis response strategies, mock drill training, and staff orientation throughout the physical and personal safety frameworks.
Section V focuses on cyber safety, requiring supervised computer use, restricted access to social media, student education on responsible digital citizenship, and legal procedures for handling cyber abuse confidentially.
According to Om Prakash Vyas, Chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR), one of the departments also tasked with conducting surveys, the findings on the ground revealed a strange situation.
‘Lapses in understanding’
Out of 25 private schools that the DCPCR had surveyed till August, all reported a lack of understanding of counselling. “While children are more aware now, during these visits we understood that the outreach and counselling programmes were lacking. Untreated trauma has kept simmering on in a lot of these children who have gone through situations that they should never have faced,” Vyas told Patriot.
The situation is only exacerbated, as proven by many of the checklists submitted by private schools.
According to a checklist submitted by a Delhi-based school, key reporting mechanisms, such as designated ‘grievance and suggestion boxes’ for parents and students to raise safety concerns, remain mostly unestablished. Furthermore, routine performance reviews assessing employee compliance with safety regulations are frequently neglected, and formal sensitisation programmes designed to support and integrate students with disabilities are often not taken up.
Recurring deficiencies
Additionally, institutions show recurring deficiencies in training staff and students on fire extinguisher operation, conducting self-defence programmes, embedding safety protocols into classroom pedagogy, and thoroughly sensitising staff on child protection laws such as POCSO and the JJ Act.
More importantly, however, is the fact that many of these schools still lack enough CCTVs on campus, despite extending over acres of land. All that the checklist of a certain school suggests is that it “needs further improvement. Will be taken up by Admin Department.”
Even the formation of Child Protection Committees (CPC) remains incomplete. Earlier in July, the Delhi government had directed all schools to form a CPC on their premises. According to the government, only the private schools remain lacking a committee. With a strength of 1,746, only about 620 have formed such committees.
Janakpuri horror
Earlier in May, a three-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a school caretaker inside a private school in Janakpuri, West Delhi, triggering intense public outrage and swift legal action.
The child’s mother filed a formal complaint at the Janakpuri police station, stating that the survivor had been taken to an isolated area within the premises during school hours. The primary accused was identified as a 57-year-old school caretaker, while a female class teacher was also implicated for allegedly failing to report the incident or attempting to conceal it.
The case sparked further controversy when a local court in Dwarka initially granted bail to both individuals, a decision that angered the victim’s family and was immediately challenged by the police. The Delhi High Court intervened, systematically overturning the lower court’s decisions. In late June 2026, the High Court cancelled the caretaker’s bail and ordered him to surrender, followed by the cancellation of the teacher’s bail in mid-July.
The court emphasised that child sexual offence cases require strict caution, highlighting the severe emotional and psychological harm inflicted on the young victim. Following the incident, the Delhi government issued safety notices to the school management regarding major child-protection and safety lapses.
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