Campus Fortify is a company born out of the pertinent requirement to address the safety concerns in the current environment especially in educational institutions. While there are several agencies auditing and monitoring safety in industries there aren’t any specifically addressing the concerns of our future generations in schools and colleges now. There is a critical requirement to fill this vacuum and create an ideal and safe environment for our children in their second homes i.e. schools where they should be only exposed to great education and nurturing of their talents.
Off late there have been various instances of safety and security breaches which have resulted in a lot of trauma in minors who have been victims of molestation, injuries due to accidents, security breaches and transport related incidents. A few of the incidents and the repercussions have been sighted below:On July 16, 2004, a fire started in the thatched-roofed Kumbakonam school’s kitchen where lunch was being prepared before spreading quickly to other rooms and floors. Many of the 94 children killed were trapped in a large classroom which had only one exit.
Reputed Pre School in, Bangalore Feb 2017 – 3.5 year old girl molested. Persons arrested-
– National Academic Head under Section 188 IPC for not having a child Protection Policy and for not putting in place a Child Protection Committee
– Director of Pre School (Franchisee) under Section 188 of IPC for Disobedience to an order promulgated by a public – Servant
– Staff (teacher)
– Accused under Sections of POCSO Act
International School, Gurugram – 7 year old Class 2 student murdered September 2017. Persons arrested-
– Bus Conductor for murder
– Regional Head Operations for negligence in maintaining building
– Head HR under Section 75 of Juvenile Justice Act for non-conduct of background checks before recruiting bus conductor.
– All three promoters had to file for anticipatory bail.
Andheri School Child abuse case June, 2017. Persons arrested- 57 year old Trustee under Sec. 376 (2) of IPC and Sections of POCSO Act.
Beating of 10 month old baby girl by caretaker in a day care centre at Kharghar, Navi Mumbai. Persons arrested-
– Care taker under Section 325 IPC & Sec. 23 Juvenile Justice (Care & Protection of Children) Act, 2000
– Owner
Fights among children are common in schools. However, if it results into an injury, the school becomes liable for failing in its duty to monitor the students and enforce discipline. This path-breaking judgment was given by the Maharashtra State Commission on September 1, 2017 in case of Rahul Joshi of Michael High School in Kurla.
On August 2, 2017, a student of class 4 of a School in Ghaziabad died after he had a fall on the second-floor corridor of the school complex, outside his classroom. His parents alleged that their child died due to school’s negligence.
In September, 2017 a class 9 student fell to her death from the third floor of a school building in Uttar Pradesh’s Deoria. The incident took place at a co-educational institute. Parents of the girl have lodged a police complaint saying that their daughter couldn’t have committed suicide but was pushed.
The Hindu 15.09.2017 has reported that 172 child abuse cases were reported in 20 months in Madurai. In all 35955 cases reported under POCSO Act in the year 2016 in India as reported by Women & Child Development Minister KrishnaRaj in RajyaSabha.
As per a report by NDTV dated December 11, 2015 almost 43 children die in road accidents in India every day. 15,633 children were killed in road accidents across India in 2015 that boils down to 7 times more deaths caused due to road accidents than due to crimes against children, like murder and foeticide.
“The onus for safety and security of children in school campus shall solely lie upon the school authorities. It is a fundamental right of a child to engage and study in an environment where he/she feels safe and is free from any form of physical or emotional abuse or harassment,” said the CBSE circular sent to schools on 12 September.
What all of the above incidents percolate down to is that there needs to be systems and processes in place for every institution. These processes should on a periodic basis be audited to ensure they are the right processes at the given point in time. Changes need to be made according to the prevailing situation and most importantly all stakeholders need to be trained on Safety at campus. This has prompted us, a group of individuals from a background in Safety, Security & from the Education industry to work together with an internationally renowned Safety Auditing company to create an auditing tool which will help in creating a safe environment for our educational institutions. We achieve this through a extensive and systematic audit of the premises and the existing protocols thereby identifying risks or threats to the organization and working with the management to get closure on identified risks.
Our services include auditing, emergency preparedness training, varied training’s for staff, safety awareness sessions for parent bodies, transport, CCTV solutions, background verification services, fire system checks, electrical safety etc. Ideally the thought was to create a one stop solution for educational institutions with regards to safety.
By supporting clients in conducting background checks for staff and outsourced manpower we help in mitigating risks to the organisation. Additionally, we support in due diligence of new vendors, franchisees and distributors engaged by the organisation.
The Team
As professionals the promoters of Campus Fortify Private Limited come from a robust background with 20 plus years of diverse work experience in the Education sector, in the Safety & Security of assets as well as enhancing safety to protect lives of Stakeholders. The promoters are also certified internal auditors for ISO 21001 an international standard for the educational institutions. The purpose of the team to set up the company was to usher in a much required change in awareness around safety in schools. The objective is to assist educational institutions to proactively identify risks and build a safety culture by conducting systematic assessments of the infrastructure and the existing processes and policies. Their proficiency also extends to procurement related Services, construction projects in educational institutions, risk management & loss prevention.
Trainings form an intrinsic part of the Safety program and the focus of the team is on quality trainings. The trainers have been selected basis their backgrounds and experience. The trainers primarily are ex defense personnel or professional trainers who have been imparting safety training through their career span.
