The Covid-19 pandemic has created a global crisis for mental health including children. India has the largest child population in the world. Children spent more time at school than anywhere else except their own homes in their formative years. The environment at school must be secure, healthy, supportive, positive, and comfortable to enable children in holistic growth and development. The psychological and social safety of a child is equally important as physical safety.

The National Commission of Protection and Safety of Child Rights (NCPCR) organized a workshop on the theme, ‘National Review cum Orientation Workshop on Accountability Framework: Responsibility of stakeholders on the implementation of School safety guidelines concerning Psycho-Social aspects’ on the occasion of commemorating “World Mental Health Day” observed on 10th October 2022 at NCERT campus, Delhi.

In this conference and workshop, the Commission has stressed the importance of Child Mental Health. The safety and security manual for schools developed by NCPCR aims to spread awareness regarding the importance of psychological interventions in all teaching institutes. The Guidelines for School Safety have been published by the Ministry of Education and NCERT as a directive to educational institutes for school safety. This manual and Guidelines can be downloaded from the NCPCR website and the NCERT website respectively or also from the links given below:

Schooledn.py.gov.in/download/forms/Manual_School_Safety_Security.pdf

Ncert.nic.in/pdf/notice/GuidelinesSchool%20SafetySecurity.pdf

In this regard, the Heads of Institutions have been directed to constitute School Safety Committee according to the guidelines set by the NCPCR and NCERT in the manual and guidelines provided in the links above. Once the committee is constituted a copy should be mailed to nagaschoolsafety@gmail.com by 15th November 2022.

                                                                                               (DIPR)