While many students in Bengaluru city are ferried to school in buses, students in rural areas mainly depend on overcrowded autorickshaws or mini-vans to go to school. Parents say narrow roads or lack of concrete roads is the reason they prefer these modes of commute.
The major violation, the Transport Department says, is allowing more children than the seating capacity. Rules specify that if the age of the schoolchildren is below 12, the number of children carried cannot exceed one-and-a-half times the permitted seating capacity, and children above 12 are treated as one person.
A large number of school van or autorickshaw drivers do not comply with the safety guidelines mandated under the Karnataka Motor Vehicles (Conditions for vehicles engaged in transport of schoolchildren) Rules, 2012. Many drivers take up to 20 children. While parents want to reduce the transport cost, the drivers tend to overload the vehicle to make a profit.
In places such as Bidar, children can be seen travelling in unsafe rear-engine autos called Tum-Tums or vans. Students in remote villages travel by goods vans or trailers in many districts.
Following the accident at Trasi in Udupi district, which claimed the life of eight children, authorities have begun checks on vehicles ferrying children.
For instance, in Hassan city, the police found two autorickshaws carrying more number of children than the limit and imposed penalty on Tuesday evening.
In Shivamogga, the Department of Public Instruction has directed school managements to provide information on the transportation arrangements they have made for students.
