School opens space to make students legal-literate

Nowadays, schools often go beyond textbooks to broaden the scope of students’ knowledge and take them to the next mile. In its quest to cultivate a sense of legal consciousness in young minds, Sanatana Dharma Vidyasala (SDV) Boys Higher Secondary School, a government-aided institution in Alappuzha municipality, has opened a Legal Literacy Gallery on its campus.

To sensitise students to crimes and their consequences and to nurture good values, multiple frames with messages have been put on the walls of the gallery. For instance, a wall frame details various Indian Penal Code sections and punishment including ones dealing with kidnapping, domestic violence, dowry death, murder, rash driving, theft, robbery, and so on in addition to the sections from the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Another frame warns students against the misuse of cyberspace.

A. Siva Subramanian, member, SDV managing committee, says the concept is to sensitise students about various crimes, their punishments, and consequences in order to create a crimeless society through awareness at a young age. “The school imparts education to students from Class V to XII. The gallery has 12 posters. It provides a continuous visual memory to students. Seeing and reading it every now and then will have a positive influence on pupils and help them to become law-abiding citizens,” says Mr. Siva Subramanian.

Apart from setting up the gallery at the 117-year-old school, the SDV management, an Alappuzha-based non-profit making institution, has distributed Kuttakrithyangalum Avayude Sankeernathakalum, a book written by Mr. Siva Subramanian, to the students of SDV Boys HSS and five other educational institutions under it. Besides, quotes from famous personalities such as Socrates, Aristotle, Gautama Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Einstein, Kunjunni Mash, and so on are written prominently on the walls of SDV Boys HSS.

It is one of the few schools in the State to have a sundial on campus. The school walls are also adorned with glimpses of Alappuzha’s history such as a full portrait of Raja Kesava Das, pier and lighthouse, scenes from paddy fields, coir making, and snake boat race, among other drawings. The school will soon open a butterfly park and a student art gallery. Bindhu T.M., Headmistress, SDV Boys HSS, says that they will allow students from other institutions to visit the Legal Literacy Gallery and other facilities on the campus based on prior permission.

The Legal Literacy Gallery was opened by District Police Chief G. Jaidev recently.