Database to record youth crimes
August 3, 2012
YDMS is a database of crime history of students and youth in general that will be shared among the stakeholders.
Royal Bhutan Police (RBP), Ministry of Education, Royal University of Bhutan (RUB) and Ministry of Labour and Human Resources, among others, are the stakeholders.
Stakeholders say that from now on the criteria for admission of students will be strictly based on criminal records. Students with criminal records in one school, college or institution will not be admitted to another school, college or institution.
An RBP spokesperson said the system will be able to specifically monitor the youth and their criminal records which will help the stakeholders understand youth, kinds of crimes they commit and their causes.
The database will help stakeholders come up with effective crime prevention measures, he said.
The police headquarters in Thimphu will host the database system and all the police stations in the country will provide their records of youth crime for future reference.
Principals and heads of the institutions will report to the police crimes committed by their students with citizenship identity card number or the student code number.
However, an RBP source said students will not be criminalized or recorded in the database until they are convicted or proven guilty.
The public opinion is, meanwhile, divided on the issue of not admitting students with criminal records to school.
The principal of Rinchen High School, Tshering Dorji, said it took a very long time for the RBP and the education ministry to realise the importance of addressing increasing youth problems in the country. When such systems are developed and instituted now, it is creating panic in people’s mind, he said.
“Schools are no place to criminalise students. Our duty is to educate them. We do not need anyone telling us whom or how to educate. We cannot deny any child his or her right to Education,” he said
Some principals and teachers, however, support the education ministry’s zero tolerance to indiscipline policy.
By Lobzang Yeshey