The State Government has adopted a meticulously-planned strategy to ensure the overall safety and security of tribal students, especially of girls, at Ashram Schools, run by the SC, ST Development, Minorities and Backward Classes Welfare Department.
About 1,736 residential educational institutions across Odisha provide education to ST and SC students from primary to secondary level with around 6,000 hostels accommodating 5.2 lakh boarders, out of which 58 per cent are girls.
An efficient technical team in form of a dedicated School and Hostel Monitoring Cell (SHMC) has been set up to coordinate the monitoring activities of the educational institutions through a centralized 24X7 Grievance Centre.
The Department has provisioned Smart phones in 1,725 girls hostels attached to the schools having 100 or more girl boarders. A toll-free number 18003453040 has also been provided to receive the complaints from students, especially girls if there is any issue.
Any sexual offences against any student shall be treated as a major offence under the OCS (CC&A) Rules 1962 and shall be liable for dismissal from services.
The staff are also being trained on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Offence (POCSO) Act and on the Safety Security Guidelines to further facilitate them to ensure safety and security of the boarders in all the tribal schools.
Instructions have been issued to all Collectors for health screening of all boarders within 1-2 days of their joining after long vacations. The health screening will be conducted for fever, malaria, diarrhoea, chicken pox, acute respiratory infections (ARI) and many others, including adolescent reproductive and sexual health issues (ARSH) for all students.
The State Government has created 3,000 posts of Lady Matrons to be engaged in girl’s hostels. If during any situation a male headmaster/principal, teacher or other staff member is required to go into the room or places of privacy, he shall necessarily be accompanied by the lady matron, lady cook-cum-attendant / helper, lady teacher or any other woman staff of the school. It also makes it mandatory that no student is asked to go to any staff quarters/residential premises for any reason whatsoever.