This app simplifies school staff's background checks

With recent incidents in schools in Delhi, schools are facing pressure to ensure that proper background checks are conducted on teachers, guards, peons and other staff they hire.

Tracing the employee’s history and contacting each employer can be a difficult task, according to Tanuka Dutta, a parent and former IT professional.

In an attempt to find a solution, she has started a platform ‘Staff You Trust’ to make background checks easier for staff working with children in schools, day care centres, and activity centres.

After a student was sexually assaulted in a Bengaluru school in 2014, Tanuka began thinking about what could be done to ensure safety of students.

“At the time, there was a lot of talk about installing CCTV cameras and GPS trackers but no one talked about the human element. I thought that this was a neglected area and a lot could be done,” she said.

Employers and employees can sign up on the website or an application. There is a verification process for employers to ensure that employees do not get their friends to sign up and provide references. Once the employee signs up, they can link themselves with the organisations where they have worked and seek references. These references are confidential and the employee can share it privately with potential recruiters. The option of linking one’s profile with Aadhaar is also available.

“When we were young, teachers and staff would work in the same school, often until their retirement. Their reputation would be built over the years. But now, teachers keep moving from one school to another. This makes it difficult to know about their background,” Tanuka said.

Bigger schools hire a third-party to conduct background checks but most rely on calling previous employers.

“It can be a very frustrating process. Sometimes, the teacher may have worked there five years ago and the employer may not be able to recollect all information. With the app, reference can be saved for the record,” she said.

Since she began working on the idea in 2016, about 30 schools have come on board. Tanuka says that with recent incidents in Delhi schools, there has been more interest from schools in Bengaluru.