Justice for Devansh

THE circumstances and conditions in which six-year-old Devansh died leave no doubt that Ryan International School killed him. The school is an upscale and most sought after in South Delhi, yet allowed death traps go unnoticed on its premises. And, that surely makes the top management, besides the staff, complicit in the crime -- murder on the campus. 

The "Aam Admi Party (AAP)" headed Delhi government most willingly shared the report of the magisterial enquiry with the media. The report is seemingly prepared by an officer who poured lots of emotions in his job. And, thus, we have the most graphic account of the incident.

Details of the report would only leave the readers gasping for breath. In fact they would horrify as well. Parents pay out of their skins to send their loved ones to such schools where they're treated like Guiana Pigs.

Not that Devansh is first to die on the school campus in Delhi. Many more kids have met such fates. And, in fact, one kid only a week before drowned to his watery graves in a municipal school in the national capital. Incidents of small kids being sexually harassed on the school campuses have been regularly taking place. The children also face harassment on way to schools in cabs driven by pervert and unverified drivers. 

Devansh Kakrora

BUT the death of Devansh is different for the reason that his father Ram Hath Meena refused to believe the school and fought back doggedly. Despite being emotionally distraught, Meena, who is a paramedic (Radiologist) in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), put out coherent and logical questions, which remained unanswered by the school management. 

That the school had a water tank, which was quite accessible, and there were loose wires hanging out around the reservoir show the school management being most shoddy and ignorant of the rules and norms laid down by none other than the Supreme Court. That such a school operates in Delhi also show how farcical the city government, municipal and fire services authorities are which fail to enforce laws.  

Yet, it's baffling to believe a professionally managed school could hire a principal (Sandhya Sabu), who cast aspersions on the dead child. Her attempt to blame the child for his death would only suggest a pervert and deranged mindset. But she is a principal of a school where thousands of kids study and spend their most productive hours. 

It defies logic that the school called little kids for poetry practice session on a day when the whole nation was having a holiday -- January 30 (Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary). When there are only a few kids in the school on such days along with a few teaching staff on a holiday, the issue of safety should be on the forefront, because Delhi by all accounts is a city of sexual predators. 

And, now that the Delhi chief minister Manish Sisodia has referred to the claims of Devansh's parents that there was cotton in the anal of the dead kid and that his shoe was separately floating in the water tank awaken the dark fears in the most. Was Devansh a victim of a sexual predator on a school campus?

It's true that only a thorough investigation would allow the truth to come out. But till then the management of Ryan International School has no right to run the school. And, the Delhi government should not lose any time to take over the management of the school.

The safety of thousands of students in the Ryan International School should be of equal concern.