At the Adarsh public school in Delhi, students are starting their morning by reciting multiplication tables and reading from textbooks as principal Prashant Sahgal settles into his office.
All of this is happening under the watchful eye of closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras.
“Every room has a CCTV, every staircase has it, the gates have it,” Sahgal told DW. “Not that we boast about it, it is mandatory,” he added.
Since 2017, the government in the Indian capital has been installing CCTV cameras in all public school classrooms to increase student safety after a slew of reported crimes against students. According to the Press Trust of India, the government expanded the project and will provide a CCTV live feed of students to parents through a password-protected portal.
In 2021, the education department also put forth guidelines to install CCTV cameras at gates and vulnerable areas at schools in Delhi. Under the guidelines, 15 days of recorded footage is accessible to school and state authorities if required.
The school in the cloud
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Does surveillance equal safety?
Aprajita Gautam, President of the Delhi Parents Association said many parents are quick to accept large-scale monitoring.
“I can give you so many examples of crimes against children in schools,” she told DW. Gautam citied a recent case in which an 11-year-old girl in a government-run school was allegedly dragged into a toilet by two seniors and raped.
The presence of a camera acts as a detriment to would-be perpetrators “because they know the camera is watching,” she said.
Principal Sahgal said that surveillance footage has also helped solve cases of petty thievery, misplaced items, and can even help with classroom behavioral issues.
“Teachers also feel empowered. It is an additional tool for them to regain their class dignity and decorum,” he said.
However, as thousands of students at public schools in Delhi are now under constant surveillance, there are concerns over privacy and filming of minors.
In 2019, a law student at Delhi’s National Law University filed a plea with the Supreme Court of India arguing that the mass installation of CCTV cameras violated the fundamental right to Privacy of minors.
“Providing a live feed to anyone with a user ID and password jeopardizes the safety and security of young girls… and shall directly give rise to incidents of stalking and voyeurism,” the plea said.
“This data is prone to being hacked and poses a serious threat to the privacy and security of the children as well as the teachers,” it added.
CCTV footage, while accessible by school authorities and parents, is also processed by third parties like servicing companies that ensure the technology is working properly.
In the case of Adarsh public school, the live feed from the cameras can be viewed by anyone on in the reception area where a 24-inch flatscreen shows what is happening in all classrooms. The recorded footage is stored just below the screen.
A principal at a large public school in Delhi told DW anonymously that while cameras in certain areas are important, he does not agree with putting cameras in every classroom.
“Too much surveillance will curb their spirit. They are growing children who need to feel free and know that we trust them,” he said.
A 2010 study by the University of New England in Australia analyzed potential effects that surveillance could have on the psychology of a child.
“If surveillance is applied as a response to fear, rather than a more balanced response to any actual risks involved, then arguably both adults and children become reactive agents contributing to a cycle of suspicion and anxiety, robbing childhood of valuable opportunities to trust and to be trusted,” an excerpt of the study said.
No data safeguards?
Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), has argued that CCTV cameras could do more harm than good.
“It may lead to unauthorized access to CCTV footage of children in Delhi government schools, which may cause inconceivable and irreversible damage to them,” the IFF said in a letter to the chief minister in July.
Gautam from the Delhi Parents Association said that the group opposes live streaming footage from schools, “it will create live stalkers,” he said.
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India is also still working on passing data privacy laws ensuring that personal identity is protected. Without a data protection law to fall back upon, it is difficult to say how the surveillance footage of children will be used or abused, IFF’s Gupta said.
“There is no safeguard,” Gupta from the IFF said.
In 2018, lawmakers introduced a draft personal data protection law, which regulates how data can be collected, stored and shared. Six years and several revisions later, the law has yet to be passed.
In 2017, Indian Supreme Court Justice KS Puttaswamy made a landmark judgment that the right to privacy is fundamental under the Indian Constitution.
If the surveillance of children in classrooms is to be put to test against this judgment, there has to be data and evidence which proves that CCTV cameras have considerably reduced crime in schools, Gupta said.
The education ministry did not respond to DW’s requests for comments on the security of CCTV footage in schools.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn
Article source: https://www.dw.com/en/india-school-surveillance-prompts-data-protection-concerns/a-63990522?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf