Bright Orange is committed to creating safe spaces for children. It is mandatory for all the employees, visitors and associates to behave and act in a responsible manner so that no harm is caused to any child or vulnerable adult within the workspace or outside it. As part of the Bright Orange policy for safeguarding children and, a Code of Conduct for dealing with children is formalised, comprising a set of non-negotiables, Dos and Don’ts.

Part 1: Non- Negotiables

These are behaviours or actions which are unacceptable or non-negotiable, leading to termination and / legal action (when a person is proven guilty of the offence).

Part 2: Do

In order to promote well-being of children and prevent any kind of harm to them, BRIGHT ORANGE encourages certain behaviours and actions from all employees or associates. These are called the Dos, as listed below:

  1. Practice good    behaviour      which     creates     a     safe     and           child-friendly environment
  2. Ensure children’s well-being and physical safety
  3. Exhibit love and respect towards children
  4. Appreciate, inspire and motivate children for their efforts
  5. Support children in their learning at BRIGHT ORANGE and in any aspect of their lives
  6. Respect everyone’s opinions and especially respect children
  7. Obey law of the land and respect the local cultures and norms; bring to notice of the Safeguarding team any such traditions/practices that harm children/ vulnerable adults
  8. Ensure safe commute or transportation for children (with parents or responsible adult)
  9. Follow protocol for responding to emergencies or risks
  10. Take the consent of children and/or parents or caregivers/ legal guardians for taking their pictures or information of personal nature by informing them correctly about the purpose and intended use of the same.

Part 3: Don’ts

There are certain behaviors or actions that can cause harm to children or vulnerable adults. Bright Orange would consider these behaviors or actions as violation of the safeguarding policy and take serious action. The following are the Don’ts:

  1. Abuse (mental, physical, social, sexual, verbal or psychological) children
  2. Hide critical information (e.g. allergies, disability and other issues) related to children with persons responsible for taking care of them / responsible for their well- being
  3. Ask children or their parents for a bribe / favour of a financial or non-financial nature for extending BRIGHT ORANGE’s services for children
  4. Allow unauthorised persons in the centre especially during children’s presence
  5. Hide or manipulate reports of child abuse / neglect
  6. Misuse the power vested in your position to manipulate or harm children
  7. Promote child labour in any form
  8. Involve children for personal work / interest
  9. Involve children in activities that can put them at physical / mental risks
  10. Exhibit inappropriate behaviour like touching children, displaying inappropriate content on mobile phones, using foul language or exhibiting violent / aggressive behaviour or such behaviour which is sexually indicative in any
  11. Be complicit in abuse of children
  12. Discriminate on the basis of sex, colour, age, race, religion, physical / mental ability or compare children with others
  13. Ignore children’s opinions, suggestions or concerns
  14. Lie to children or make false promises
  15. Involve children for political gains / interest
  16. Engage children in substance abuse or drug dealings
  17. Engage in or promote child marriage (18 years for girls and 21 years for boys)
  18. Take photos / videos without consent
  19. Engage children in pornography, or access / store the same in children’s presence
  20. Violate confidentiality
  21. Insist/ force children to attend class/ activities in extreme weather
  22. Promote nepotism and/or favouritism

Role of Teachers and all the Staff members visiting the center in Prevention, Recognition and Rehabilitation

Activities to ensure prevention

  1. Ensure a proper discipline in the class
  2. Marking attendance on regular basis so that regular and occasional children are always noticed
  3. Making children sit in rotational way so that no child abuses, bullys another child as a
  4. Make children sit in proper way with back erect and not in half lying down/ or sitting with the support of another child, or making smaller children sit in the lap of bigger children.
  5. Door of the class not be closed if the teacher is not
  6. Make sure that all the children are properly dressed- half naked children, or children wearing just the under wears, or children in torn clothes are not to be allowed in the class. If children come in any of the above conditions, then teacher may ask the child to go back, but the parent should be informed about this. Alternately, each class may keep two T-shirts spare, one bunch of Safety pins for such exigencies.
  7. Children to be sent to toilets one by one or two at a time for bigger girls, and smaller
  8. Surprise checking of toilets to be done if we have closed toilets available for our children
  9. Check that the same number of children are going back as many had come in the morning
  10. No unauthorised person should be allowed in the school when children are
  11. Visitors have to sign a declaration that they understand the responsibility towards children’s safety
  12. Visitors are not allowed to take individual child’s
  13. Photographs of the children have to be taken with their parent’s
  14. Teacher shall not leave the school unless all the children have left for
  15. Teacher shall lock the door and keep the keys with
  16. In no case shall the teacher leave the school and ask children to lock the
  17. A notice informing about holiday has to be put outside the school for all holidays other than
  18. Posters about child safety to be displayed in all

Child Safety and Stakeholders

  1. Child safety has to be mandatory part of each PTM
  2. Parents need to be informed every time that we shall not take children anywhere without their consent. So, they should not be allowed to come to school on this pretext.
  3. All the community leaders need to be identified and called for meetings on safety
  4. Visits by police once in a month should be requested

Behaviour to ensure prevention

  1. Create and open and safe space
  2. Keep a sharp eye on any activity indicative of any type of abuse going on like bullying or sexual abuse even if subtle.
  3. Talk to the children about all types of abuse- physical, mental, sexual, and emotional, drug abuse and threats of careless use of internet in a friendly and safe environment
  4. These talks will be held on every Tuesday after the
  5. Convey the message that it is not the child’s fault if s/he is
  6. Teacher has to be mindful of her/ his language while talking to children- no discrimination, name calling, assigning of wrong attributes is allowed.
  7. Display posters about safety and child’s reaction if s/he faces any
  8. No judgement for the child- not only the victim but also the child who has allegedly bullied or abused in any way the child

How to recognize an abuse

  1. Any abnormal behaviour which is different from the child’s usual behaviour like excessive quiet, excessive scared, not mixing with children, being absent or spending all the time in school and so on.
  2. Even new children in school can be identified if they are scared or not like other

How to handle an abuse

  1. The child’s privacy and dignity are of utmost importance- so the matter has to be handled with
  2. If a teacher identifies any unusual behaviour of a child, then she has to talk to her privately without creating any dramatic scene about it.
  3. If the child discloses her issue, then the matter has to be appropriately
  4. The matter has to be reported to the senior teacher and
  5. If it is social, physical and mental abuse with origin in the home then the child’s family has be taken into confidence and counselled for the child’s well-being.
  6. proactive counselling of the child is to be
  7. If it is a case of sexual abuse, originated in home or in the neighbourhood, then family will be taken into confidence, and help will be provided in connecting the child and her family with appropriate agencies.
  8. If it is a case of sexual abuse implicating an employee of the organization then the organization will take appropriate legal measures as per the law of the land. Concerned employee shall. e terminated from the job with immediate effect.