10.1.2 Welfare hostel management: G.O.Ms.No.46 (2023) standard operating procedures

Explained

1. Chapter 1: general guidelines.

• Residence: if quarters are missing or dilapidated (certified by the engineering department), staff live at headquarters; addresses and alternative phone numbers sit in a register or on the notice board; HRA is recovered for occupied quarters.
• Job charts: every employee follows the job chart given by circulars and G.O.s; deviation means stringent action; supervisors report it through the escalation matrix.
• Leave: the HOI arranges a substitute in advance and records it in the memo / substitution work register; the HOI's own leave needs prior approval, and the handover / takeover is recorded.
• District officers' night stay: they act as mentoring officers responsible for the institution's improvement and the students' academic excellence.
• Guest of the Day: officers, elected representatives, professionals, entrepreneurs and alumni in respectable jobs; the register records the guest and the gist of the thought for the day.
• The 12 grading parameters: (1) enrolment and retention, (2) hygienic implementation of the menu, (3) amenities used through the year, (4) kitchen garden and greenery, (5) toilets and bathrooms, (6) safe drinking water, (7) prevention of untoward incidents, (8) mess committee and parents' meetings, (9) competitions (sports, science fair, art), (10) NCC / NSS / Scouts and Guides, (11) infrastructure through CSR and voluntary help, (12) pass percentage in public examinations.
• Health records: every visit and screening goes into a register for health and visiting officials. Weekly screening is by the school health supervisor, ANM, house master, science teacher or PET / PD.
• Incidents: reported at once with type, number of students, reason and time, by mail, phone or WhatsApp besides SOS; an SOS app was to be developed.

2. Chapter 2: who supervises what.

• Level-1 officers work with principals, HWOs, deputy wardens, caretakers, health supervisors and house parents; any lapse goes at once to the HOI and the Level-2 officer.
• Level-2 (AWO / convenor principal), at least once a month: facilities (water, toilets, rooms, kitchen, dining area, waste); biometric student and staff attendance against physical presence; study hours taken by teachers; provisions as per the agreement and the diet quantity used daily; water reports, food quality and taste in the mess committee register; random checks of amenities; health cards; progress cards (asking boarders questions); movement and roll-call registers; committee registers; the second-Sunday PTM; lapses escalated to Level 3.
• Level-3 (district officer): tours 15 days a month; test-checks timely distribution of entitlements; follows up Level-1 and Level-2 reports till grievances are redressed; watches academics, infrastructure, amenities, health and nutrition, supply chain, JVK kit distribution, water and sanitation, records.
• How often each item is checked (inspection formats): attendance, menu and student feedback weekly; entitlements yearly; parents' meeting monthly; infrastructure monthly; girl safety weekly; boarders' health fortnightly; health and hygiene weekly.
• Long absentees: children absent over 7 days or over 30 days are listed with the reason (health, child labour, child marriage, farm or household work, money, distance, special needs) and their homes visited for motivation.
• Inspection items are digitised in the JNB app, sent up the escalation matrix and to the HOI for redress within a service-level agreement (SLA).
• The Collector and Joint Collector review grievance redress and the working of the whole mechanism.

3. Committees in every institution (Annexure I).

4. Chapter 3: child safety and security. Safety means a safe environment from home to school and back: against abuse, violence, psycho-social problems, natural and man-made disasters and fire.

• Buildings: certified safe by local authorities; elementary classes on the ground floor; buildings limited to three floors including the ground floor; no inflammable or toxic material; good light and air; kitchen and fire away from the main building; water tanks covered; CCTV maintained; repairs from Nadu-Nedu, TMF, SMF and CSR funds.
• Classrooms: secure windows, no broken glass; blackboards fixed to the wall.
• Kitchen: clean, lit, ventilated, insect-proof (no spraying while cooking; fly flaps and nets); potable water; utensils washed and dried; drainage; do's and don'ts for cooks displayed in the local language; cooks trained on gas stoves and cylinders; dustbin with a lid; no student in the kitchen during cooking.
• Toilets: separate for children, staff and support staff; accessible toilets for children with disabilities; running water; doors; cleaned daily; incineration for menstrual waste with privacy.
• Drinking water: safe and enough; RO complaints lodged in the IMMS app.
• Electrical: periodic checks; live wires cut off and replaced; branches cleared from LT lines; danger boards; open wires in plastic pipes; building earthing.
• Fire: a fire-safety certificate renewed periodically; alarms or smoke detectors; mock drills with fire services; staff trained.
• Boundary and gates: a wall too high to scale, topped with concertina wire; 3-4 gates for emergency exit but outsiders enter only by one gate manned by a watchman (with CCTV); main gate locked after entry; visitors checked through a window, no visitor vehicles inside; visitors' register with name, mobile number and purpose; a first-aid kit.
• Surroundings: away from railway tracks; no liquor, opium or bhang shop near the school; shops selling pan and tobacco relocated.
• Barrier-free access: ramps to the entry, classrooms, toilets, playground, library, canteen, hall and floor to floor, with railings on both sides; a school map in Braille at the gate, Braille signage in classrooms and a Braille evacuation plan; a list of children with disabilities, trained staff and one designated official for them in an emergency.
• Water and drowning: wells and ponds walled and grilled; no going to rivers, canals, ponds or rail tracks; no bathing from overhead tanks (steps fenced); movement in groups and a movement register; no going out alone; the cause of unauthorised absence found and parents told; no idol-immersion rallies or processions out of the campus.
• Construction and festivals: building work in the students' lean time, barricades and sign boards, covered water; on festival days teachers on duty, no movement near danger points, staff briefed.
• Clearances: a mandatory fire-safety inspection by Fire and Rescue Services and a No Objection Certificate to start or continue a residential school; quarterly inspection for cracks, especially in the rainy season.
• Cyber safety: firewall, user authentication, safe search; separate sessions for parents and students; an awareness session once a month.
• Child protection: good touch / bad touch in the curriculum; a child-friendly teacher (preferably a woman) nominated to hear children; self-defence training for girls by a trained PET or teacher; children with depression or psychological problems spotted early and sent to health clinics; land-phone facility for children; psycho-social counselling.
• Registers and displays the staff keep: children movement register, menstrual hygiene register (adolescent girls), visitors' register, food-testing register, the staff duty roster displayed; the hostel mapped to the nearest police station, social counsellor and medical facility.

5. Safety tools in Annexure III.

• Checklist (21 items): old or cracked building, flammable substances, ramps, safe wiring, clear exits, first-aid kit, fire-fighting system, a trained disaster-management team, working RO, protected water source, tested water, clean toilets with sanitary-pad disposal, pest-free kitchen, good-touch awareness, an anti-bullying committee, no harmful shops nearby, a POCSO box, mock drills.
• Do's: surprise night visits; senior staff stay on campus; CCTV with backup; children's committees; police patrol at night; a complaint box; child helpline numbers displayed.
• Don'ts: no medication for a mental-health problem without evaluation by a trained professional; never disclose a victim child's identity; no child travels alone without an escort (preferably a parent); no access to liquor, drugs or tobacco; no orphan or abandoned child admitted without Child Welfare Committee (CWC) orders.
• School safety plan, five steps: (1) situation analysis; (2) hazard and vulnerability analysis; (3) preparedness (safety and child-protection committees, disaster teams, resources, evacuation map, training and mock-drill calendar); (4) emergency response (continuity of schooling, provision for divyang children); (5) mitigation (non-structural measures, safety audit).
• Annual safety calendar:

6. Chapter 4: food safety. Responsibility: HWOs, caretakers, HOI and mess committee members; HWOs must buy and use fresh vegetables and good commodities.

• Preparation: CCTV in kitchen, store, wash area and dining area; rice, cereals and pulses cleaned by hand; leafy vegetables washed before cutting, never after; a clean chopping board; Cook-cum-Helpers (CCHs) wear gloves and caps; no cooked food from outside (donors, weddings): cook afresh in the kitchen instead; no stale food.
• Cooking: lid on (saves nutrients, stops contamination); clean containers; serve immediately after cooking; vegetarian and non-vegetarian items kept apart; gas cylinders outside the kitchen; burners serviced; students kept out of cooking and serving areas and never made to cook.
• Community help: Gram Panchayat and the Hostel / Residential School Development Committee members inspect by rotation and also taste the food with the HWO; mothers' groups help children wash hands with soap, use clean plates and avoid waste.
• Food testing: the State may use CSIR institutes, NABL- and FSSAI-accredited laboratories (microbial and chemical tests); the Food Inspector of the local urban body is mapped to institutions.
• Cleaning: kitchen floors and slabs cleaned before and after cooking; cleaning cloths of the cooking area never used elsewhere and sun-dried; utensils scrubbed with detergent under running water; containers corrosion-free and covered.
• Cook-cum-Helpers: high personal hygiene; anyone with an infectious disease (diarrhoea, vomiting, skin infection, jaundice) does not cook; health check twice a year; trimmed nails, no nail polish, rings, bangles or watches; no chewing, smoking or spitting; hand washing after the toilet, coughing or a phone call.
• Pests and waste: wire mesh on openings; pesticides generally not used in cooking areas (if unavoidable, stored locked with records); the SSA maintenance grant may pay for pest-proofing; fire extinguishers in the kitchen; waste cleared after every meal; kitchen waste into biogas or compost pits.
• Dining: a spacious, ventilated dining room with wire-mesh windows, cleaned daily; hand-washing stations with taps, running water and soap.

7. Chapter 4: water safety. PHED (urban) and Rural Water Supply (RWS) departments are responsible for safe water to welfare institutions.

• Tested at three points: the source, the distribution system and the end user; field tests for residual fluoride.
• 14 physico-chemical parameters: pH, turbidity, colour, odour, total dissolved solids, alkalinity, hardness, chloride, sulphate, fluoride, nitrate, calcium, magnesium, iron. Bacteriological: total coliform and E. coli.
• Samples:

• Labs: RWS has 112 laboratories (State-level lab at Vijayawada); 4 special labs at Eluru, Palakollu, Kakinada and Rajahmundry test heavy metals and pesticides. Rural institutions are also mapped to the Village Health Clinic (MLHP).
• Urban: 6 physical, 12 chemical, 1 bacteriological, 21 heavy-metal, 14 pesticide tests; labs of IPM, RWS&S and APPCB; heavy metals and pesticides tested every 3 months at NABL labs; a nodal officer of at least AE / AEE rank; PHED covers 117 urban local bodies and 536 urban health clinics.
• HWO's part: collect water at the storage point and the final outreach point and send it for testing; use the field testing kit; HWOs and caretakers are trained by PHED / RWS; the welfare department pays the test fee; field exposure visits to water treatment plants; SCERT adds drinking water to awareness programmes; tanks, RO plants and sumps cleaned regularly; water records kept.

8. Chapter 4: personal health hygiene.

• A fixed time in the daily timetable for hand washing with soap by children, cooks and teachers, before and after meals; 20-30 bottles of diluted liquid soap serve about 200 children.
• No water-logging: the Friday dry day removes bottles, tyres, coconut shells and other water holders; oil balls and fogging with the panchayat; garbage cleared by the local body.
• Awareness camps on personal and menstrual hygiene with SCERT posters and videos; theme competitions (e.g. on International Hand Washing Day).
• Orientation twice a year (start of the session and reopening after holidays) by HWOs, caretakers and health supervisors on the use of washrooms, water points, dining hall, dormitory and playground.
• With ICDS, Childline and health officials: camps on health, good touch / bad touch, child rights and toilet use.

9. Chapter 5: untoward incidents and crisis management.

• 15 types: snake bite, dog bite, scorpion sting, electric shock, drowning, fall from a height, missing boarder, fracture, road accident, suicide or attempt, health hazard, food poisoning / contamination, eve teasing, unrest, any other.
• District Officer: sends the divisional officer (to reach within 1-2 hours) and reaches within 2-3 hours; works with the district administration; deploys staff of nearby institutions; inquires into causes and persons responsible if man-made; preliminary report within 24 hours to the HOD.
• DM&HO: mobilises doctors and ambulances, alerts hospitals, reaches within 2-3 hours.
• Collector: gears up the district administration, sends a senior officer, reaches within 6 hours.
• HOD: analyses magnitude and causes, informs Government within 3 hours, reaches (or sends a senior officer) and files a detailed report within 48 hours.
• First aid: kits kept, staff trained, and boarders trained as item-wise amateur resource persons ("amateur doctors").
• Hospital: PHC / CHC / area / district hospital, preference to Government hospitals; a private hospital only if needed equipment or specialists are missing.
• Also: samples seized for investigation; lapses punished at any level; panic calmed and psychological care given; police and revenue help when needed; the department controls the campus till normalcy and keeps out unruly elements and gossip-mongers.
• Displays (MIS): first-aid do's and don'ts for each incident; phone numbers of PHC, CHC, hospitals, nearby private hospitals, and of officials (AWO, DWO, Collector, HOD, Secretary; Tahsildar, MPDO, SHO, RDO, DSP).

10. Daily schedule of a welfare hostel (Annexure III(f)).

• Residential schools (Annexure III(e)) follow a separate uniform timetable: wake up 5:00, warm-up and roll call, yoga 5:30-6:00, milk, breakfast, assembly 7:45, eight periods of 40 minutes from 8:00, lunch 1:00-2:00, house-teacher interaction, remedial hour 3:00-4:00, snacks and games, dinner 6:00-7:00, night study 7:00-9:00, All India Radio news 9:00-9:15 pm.

11. Entitlements inspectors check.

• JVK kit (Jagananna Vidya Kanuka, now Vidyarthi Mitra): 4 pairs of dresses, bedding (carpet and blanket or bed sheet), notebooks, belt, tie, shoes and socks, trunk box, steel plate, glass and bowl, textbooks and workbooks; one more pair of uniform; sanitary napkins (checked weekly).
• Cosmetic charges paid month by month and hair-cutting charges.
• Stock check: rice, dal, tamarind, chilli powder, oil, groundnut seeds, ravva and gas tallied register vs physical; commodities with FSSAI and ISI marks; biometric registration of vendors, caretakers and cooks at receipt and delivery.
• Kitchen garden, compost pit and waste-water drainage; students' neat uniforms and combed hair; sayings, charts and maps on the walls.