The students' school buildings are in earthquake prone zone but there is no disaster management plan
Highlighting the alarming condition of schools operating in the eastern part of the Capital, a report released on Thursday stated that the lives of more than 3.1 lakh students studying in these schools are at risk as most of these buildings fall in the Yamuna flood zone.
Entitled How safe our kids are?, the report compiled by a city-based NGO — Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) in collaboration with another organisation Honeywell, said, "Around 3,070 schools across Delhi lie in a high seismic (earthquake prone) zone including all 624 schools in its eastern part."
The NGO also conducted research based on 1,035 responses, including parents, teachers and principals across the Capital, particularly in east Delhi, and found that '99 per cent of people are not aware of disaster helplines', and '93 per cent parents don't know whether their child's school has a disaster management plan'.
"58 per cent parents fear road accidents as the greatest risk for their children, about 69 per cent children walk to school unaccompanied and 55 per cent parents attributed disaster losses to inadequate response systems," pointed out the report.
The NGO Honeywell also launched a three-year long programme to help schools address the risks of natural and man-made disasters with a special focus on 50 schools in the east Delhi as its first phase.
"The Honeywell Safe Schools programme will work to "empower" around 25,000 students, 40,000 parents, and 1,000 teachers across Delhi."
"It will focus on orienting staff based on risk assessment of each participating school and conducting exercises to make aware the students, teachers and parents in such a situation," said Manu Gupta, executive director of SEEDS.
Echoing the sentiment, Kamal Kishore, a member of National Disaster Management Authority, said, "My conviction is that countries that do a good job in school safety, do a good job in reducing the impact of disasters as a whole.
Look at Japan and Turkey, countries that have made huge progress in school safety, their overall system improves."
Statistics Say
53%
Schools in Delhi are at highest risk from earthquakes
55%
Parents say disaster losses due to bad response systems
58%
Parents fear road accidents as the greatest risk
99%
People are not aware about of disaster helplines
69%
Children walk to school unaccompanied
93%
Parents are unaware about school’s disaster mgt plan
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