Students data being sold at Rs 4-6/child: Report

Students data including their names, class, roll number, name of the school and the contact number of their parents are available for sale for as little as Rs 4 to Rs 6, according to a report by Hindustan Times.

According to the report, about 14 to 15 salespersons employed by various coaching centres in Chandigarh’s Sector 34 confirmed the publication that they had access to data of around 7,000 students studying in 26 different schools of Chandigarh, Mohali and Panchula. While data on each child was sold for Rs 4 to Rs 6 to various agencies for marketing, the entire amount in some cases stood at Rs 28,000, as per the report.

DH independently couldn't verify the report.

This is a gross violation of Article 19 of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which assures that member countries shall ensure that there is no exploitation of children, senior advocate H C Arora told the publication.

"It also exposes children to crime by antisocial elements, particularly female child. It is a very serious matter," Arora said.

Some parents have also been contacted by various coaching centres. Jatinder Chopra, a parent whose data was accessed by the newspaper, said his mobile phone was bombarded with messages from coaching centres. Chopra termed it "a serious breach of privacy."

"Parents after trusting the school share their personal details, including annual income, marital status, address and social media profile during admissions. These are minute details of their personal life as well as those of their children," Nitin Goyal, president, Chandigarh Parents Association (CPA), told the publication.