A day after the Shimla police arrested four teachers for sexually exploiting female students of Prerna Welfare Association — an NGO for children with special needs — it has come to light that the institute had been running illegally from 2004 to November 2008 until it finally got registration from the government under the Persons With Disability (PWD) Act, 1995.

However, since 2006 it continued to receive a grant of Rs 30,000 per month from the state Education Department under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

As the scandal broke, the SSA on Thursday decided to cancel all grants for Prerna until the case is resolved. While SSA state project director Rajesh Sharma insisted that grants were being given for “teaching 20 disabled children under the home-based learning programme because the institution is registered with the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI)”, the facts reveal a different story.

None of the teachers employed by Prerna School was registered with the Rehabilitation Council under the RCI Act 1992, which as per the law, amounts to two years of imprisonment or penalty for the school authorities.

The managing director of the school, Komal, admitted this to The Indian Express. “None of the eight teachers in the school were registered as professional teachers with the RCI,” she said.

Interestingly, the rules framed by the state’s Social Justice and Empowerment Department, the authority appointed for registration purposes, are silent on the type of “facilitates and standards” (under the PWD Act) in such schools before registration.

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