Do not brand children when they go wrong: Mangaluru DC suggests dedicated helpline, mentoring for girls' safety

In view of recent crimes against female students in the district, Deputy Commissioner S Sasikanth Senthil on Monday advised educational institutions to focus on personalised mentoring of every student once or twice in a week in order to address issues bothering their safety.

Speaking at a meeting of heads of educational institutions on the safety of girls, he said the educational institutions should have people having specialised training in personalised mentoring with whom the students can open up their problem. Most of the times, he said students will not open up with parents or teachers who are not up to the standard. "In many countries, personalised mentoring is part of the college curriculum. As IAS officers, we are also mentored by seniors when we are undergoing some problem," he said adding that soon standards for mentoring will be set after going through WHO standards.

Further, he said that the district helpline (1077) will be made more robust with dedicated staff for handling issues related to women harassment. The helpline will be sensitive. The complaints will be forwarded to the appropriate agency to get the outcome. Also, the possibility of having a separate a helpline for women in the district will be explored, he said. To curb the drug abuse, he is planning peer review groups and student policing in order to get actionable information from the students. Only students in a close circle will know about their peer taking drugs. But usually, students only want to stay away from such students. Peer review groups will help get actionable information, he said.

The DC said soon a circular will be issued to all educational institutions with regard to students safety. He asked the heads of institutions to have a positive frame of mind about children and not brand them when they go wrong as it will only worsen the situation. Earlier, the heads of institutions came up with suggestions like a ban on cellphones in college premises, restriction on movement of outsiders within and near colleges, prevent students from going to pubs, appoint trained wardens to hostels, create awareness about gender sensitivity, punishment for sexual crimes among others to prevent the crime against women.

DCP Hanumantharaya sought the public help to curb the drug menace in Mangaluru. Stating that the city is getting narcotics drugs from even Mumbai and Goa and there are also Apps for drug delivery, he said unless the public share information about the users, it will be difficult for police to curb the menace. Ravish Tunga, a psychiatrist from AJ Institute of Medical Sciences, said stressed the need to identify psychopathic or anti-social personality among students and take corrective measures through counselling. Stating that drug abuse is rampant in Mangaluru, he said out of every 100 patients, 12 are drug abusers.