CMS Policies for the Safety and Security of Children

CMS is pleased to share its detailed, well-enforced policies to ensure all aspects of the safety and security of all children. Indeed, we believe the safety and security of children must be the foremost priority of any school.

The policies shared below apply across all our school campuses. Safety policies have been in force since the time of the school’s foundation in 1959, and have of course been refined and improved over time and are updated and re-stated every year. The latest versions of the CMS safety policies, published in September 2017, are available at the links below.

In addition, each campus at its own level has a Safety and Security Committee – consisting of the Principal and other staff – with individuals having formally designated responsibility for particular areas of safety (such as transport safety, electrical safety, cyber safety, fire safety, general security, etc.). These committees convene every month, and all meetings are comprehensively minuted with action taken as and when any issues or concerns arise.

As well as this, there is a CMS Central Safety and Security Committee consisting of the senior-most officers of the organisation, including the CMS President Prof. Geeta Gandhi Kingdon, which meets on a regular basis to review policies, the enforcement of those policies, the minutes of the campus-level committee meetings, and any other issues that may come to light. The members of this committee, and details about their areas of responsibility, are as follows:

Professor Geeta Gandhi Kingdon
President & Managing Director (MD)
As President of CMS, safety and security of children is Professor Geeta’s foremost priority.
Mrs Aruna Gupta
Chair, CMS Child Safety & Security Committee
Head, Child Well-Being & Safety
Former Principal, CMS Station Road Campus (2000-2015)
Mrs Aruna Gupta has long experience in CMS, and has a deep understanding of the ground reality for children in the campuses having served as a Principal for 16 years. She convenes, chairs, and documents the committee’s meetings, and is also overall in charge of Child Well-Being across all CMS campuses.
Mrs Lata Saxena
Functional Secretary to the Founder-Director, CMS
Mrs Lata Saxena has served in CMS for over two decades, and looks after a number of areas on behalf of the Founder-Director Dr Bharti Gandhi. Having oversight of all CMS’s work pertaining to construction, infrastructure, and equipment, she is well-placed to advise on physical aspects of children’s safety.
Mr Ronodeb Ghosh
Chief Fire Safety Officer
PA to Founder-Manager, CMS
Mr Ronodeb Ghosh is an expert in all fire-related aspects of safety, including equipment and procedures. He is vigilant in ensuring that all campuses comply with fire safety norms, taking a firm ‘prevention is better than cure’ approach and organising regular fire evacuation drills. He also trains staff in the proper use of fire safety equipment. He has also published this article entitled Safety First in Mentor Magazine on the topic of children's safety in schools.
Mr Alok Singh
Head, Workforce Department
Mr Alok Singh is overall in charge of the approximately 1,600 support staff who work across CMS campuses – including security guards, maintenance staff, electricians, and other workers – who are crucial to children’s safety.
Mr Santosh Tiwari
Chief Security Officer
Mr Santosh Tiwari deals with security matters, with a particular focus on working with external bodies and state law enforcement personnel, district administration, police, etc. whenever necessary.
Mr Vinod Dwivedi
Environmental Health and Safety Officer
Mr Vinod Dwivedi conducts regular and comprehensive physical inspections of all CMS campuses, keeping a photographic record of anything he finds that could compromise children’s safety and submitting monthly reports to the CMS Management accordingly. Prompt action is taken on the basis of his reports.

Children's well-being is linked to their physical safety as well as their psychological and emotional state. CMS has a dedicated Child Well-Being Department, with a qualified psychological counsellor present in each campus to deal confidentially with the personal issues and concerns of individual children, and to councel students and parents. To further understand the importance of this aspect of safety, you may read this article on the topic published by CMS’s Director of Strategy, Mr Roshan Gandhi, in The Times of India.

CMS also conducts regular trainings for staff, in order to ensure that they are well aware of all aspects of children’s safety.

The latest safety policy documents of CMS are available below, with some key highlights summarised below each link. Some of our policy documents take the form of circulars sent from the Management to the Principals of all campuses, and have been uploaded as scans of signed documents accordingly.

Document 1: CMS Safety Policy and Procedures

General Safety
  • There is extensive CCTV coverage throughout all campuses
  • Every girls' bathroom has an ayah deputed outside full-time to ensure that no boy enters
  • Every entrance and exit of CMS campuses is manned by a full-time security guard
  • CMS has an organised, systematic emergency operations plan in place to reduce risks and to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover, in the unlikely event of a crisis situation.
Fire Safety
  • All campuses are fully equipped with fire safety equipment
  • All campuses go through regular, comprehensive fire safety drills
Electrical and Infrastructural Safety
  • A number of rules and guidelines are stated and strictly enforced to ensure all electrical equipment and physical infrastructure is safe at all times.

Document 2: CMS Transport Safety Policy

A number of transport related rules and guidelines are in place and strictly enforced for drivers, bus-cleaners and transport in-charges, to ensure maximum safety for children at all times when travelling to and from school and in any dealings with school drivers and transport personnel. Drivers are expected to follow a strict code of conduct, and the responsibilities of the different stakeholders associated with school transport are clearly delineated.

Document 3: Cyber Safety Policy

There are strict rules and guidelines for staff to follow when it comes to the use of Internet and social media, including a ban on staff being directly connected with students on any social media platform.


Safety and Security Monthly Meetings at CMS Campuses

Keeping schools safe allows children to flourish academically, physically and emotionally. To promote safety, each campus has its own 'Safety and Security Committee', headed by the principal and having one member each to look after transport, fire, electrical, cyber and environmental safety standards. These committees meet each month and send the minutes of their meetings to the CMS Central Safety and Security Committee, which takes up issues arising from these Minutes.