Submission of synopsis on 14 July 23

Disasters & Fire safety preparedness and mitigation

measures in schools
By
Balwant Singh Dr. Mukta Girdhar
Student Supervisor

Introduction
In India, almost 85% of its geographical area is vulnerable to one or multiple natural disasters.
Twenty-two states in India have multi-hazard zones. When a disaster strikes, schools as integral
part of the community plays an important role by sheltering, building, and enhancing the
resilience and cohesiveness amongst community. Disasters usually result in trauma amongst
children in addition to the financial and personal loss to the community. The academic sessions
run as per schedule; however, children affected by natural disasters are not able to cope up with
the academics leading to exclusion from the school system. Unfortunately, in India, so far, the
schools located in natural disaster-prone areas are not mapped properly.

The Year 2015 is likely to usher a new framework for disaster risk reduction (DRR) as counties
finalize and adopt the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA)-2 of post-2015 DRR Framework
during Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai City, Japan on 14 - 18
March 2015 (Banki-Moon Seceratery General United Nations said, that “ The Sendai conference
represents the ‘First step of our journey to a new future”). The successor framework is expected
to address the challenges posed by increasing disaster risk over the next 20 to 30 years
(UNISDR, 2013). School safety is pivotal for safety of children as well as wider society as
damage to schools has wider impact, beyond the boundaries of schools. The fire in a school in
Kumbakonam, India in 2004 leading to death of 94 students, the death of over 5000 pupils
during the Sichuan, China earthquake of 2008 and the recent (December 2014) Peshawar,
Pakistan Army school tragedy leading to death of 132 students are gruesome reminders and calls
for comprehensive school safety.
On 24 May 2019, a fire occurred at a commercial complex in Sarthana jagatnaka area of Surat in
the Gujarat state of India. Twenty-two students died and others were injured in an academic
coaching centre located on the building's terrace. The fire was started by a short circuit on the
ground floor; the students in the coaching centre were trapped by the destruction of a wooden
staircase. Its very important to implement safety measure to save student life.
Globally, it is evident as there have been major casualties to innocent school children because of
the earthquakes and school building collapses. On Dec 7, 1988 in Armenia thousands of school
children killed including 400 at an elementary school in Dzhrashen which collapsed, on May 10,
1997; 110 students killed at Ardakul, Iran in Primary school collapsed. In 1999, the Chi-Chi
Earthquake destroyed 43 Taiwan schools in the Nantou and Taichung area and a total of 700
schools nationwide were damaged. In the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake the rate of child mortality
was substantial with the death of 19,000 students and the total destruction of about 7000 schools.

If any disaster, mainly earthquake and fire occur in day time, it has been noticed that the
percentage of children dying are far higher due to unsafe environment and unprepared schools.
In recent times, Government has taken aspects of disaster risk reduction in school seriously.
Therefore, keeping in view the vulnerability of area and exposure of untrained school children, it
becomes imperative to implement School Safety Programme in line with the Government of
India guidelines to save invaluable children lives.

Each year disasters have a major impact on children, youth and education systems. In the
disaster-prone region of the Asia Pacific, around 200 million children per year will have their
lives severely disrupted by disasters in the coming decades. Every child has a right to a quality
education, yet across the region many children are unable to realise this right due to the impact of
these disasters. Educational inequities are made worse because of schools being damaged or
destroyed (due to poor site selection, design, or construction), schools being used as evacuation
center’s, and because disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies are not being adequately resourced
or prioritized through different levels of governments and to the community level. Being unable
to realize this right put child at risk of exploitation and violence, and contributes towards a lack
of economic participation.

Background of the study

It has been estimated that the floods of September 2014 affected nearly
1,949,790 children in the states of Jammu and Kashmir.
 Psychosocial issues, inability to mingle with the other
children due to closure of schools and a harsh winter are the
main issue of children.
  Malnutrition, high school dropout, exposure to different diseases and exploitation of
children in terms of abuse and violence is also one of the biggest issue.

This has a direct repercussion on the life expectancy rate of the region due to the exposure to
increased risk for disasters.
The current DRR
Framework i.e. HFA 2005-
15 led to a number of
school safety campaigns
and frameworks at various
levels from global to
national and it includes the
One Million Safe Schools
and Hospitals campaign by
UNISDR, the Ahmedabad
Action Agenda for School Safety of 2007 and the Comprehensive School Safety Framework of
2013. These interventions have led to increased awareness and preparedness in schools.
However, reduction in vulnerability or exposure of school buildings is limited as only a few
countries and local bodies undertook multi-hazard construction or retrofitting of school buildings
on a pilot basis. There is a need for concrete action to achieve comprehensive school safety, and
to refine the methods and indicators for measuring progress to cover all aspects of safe schools
(UNISDR, 2012).
Creating a safe environment for the children in school is the most important task, as in the case
of emergency they are the most vulnerable. Disasters affect even more children, causing them to
lose their homes, their families, schools’ access to adequate food, water and sanitation. There is a
need for a Structural, as well as nonstructural intervention, to ensure the safety of the children.
Structural intervention would include strict check on the guideline’s setup for school building,
while nonstructural would mean educating the staff teacher and student about disaster
Management.
Furthermore, if education is supported before, during and after a disaster it can save lives, protect
children, and benefit whole communities and countries. Schools can have a catalytic effect on
strengthening humanitarian effectiveness, reducing vulnerabilities and supporting risk mitigation
for future hazards. Additionally, while the cost of education in emergencies interventions can be
high, such costs can be minimized with investment to ensure that national education systems are
less vulnerable, and local schools are better prepared to bounce back from crisis and return
children to learning as soon as possible.

Significance

Children represent hope for the future. Schools are institutions of learning, instilling values and
passing on both traditional and conventional know-how to youngsters. Damage to educational
institutions disrupts the education system and eventually the development of the country.
Children in schools are the most vulnerable groups to disasters. Exposure to various hazards,
inadequacies in the structure and lack of preparedness measures can have disastrous
consequences on them in the event of a disaster. One cannot completely avoid disasters but
through proper preparedness, mitigation, and preventive measures, one may, however, reduce
their risks to some extent.
Objective
To enhance conceptual understanding on various aspects of Disaster Risk
Reduction and School Safety from an inclusive perspective
To develop competencies of the participants to undertake Disaster Risk Reduction
me (training of the students, components of School Disaster Management Plan
(DMP) undertake an vulnerability, capacity and risk analysis, etc)
To enable the participants to develop the School Disaster Management Plan
(SDMP)

Study Details
Delhi is proposed for the present research study becaause Delhi is vulnearable to many
factors. The presence of thousand of high rise building with poor fire safety management. The
presence of markets dealing with highly flammable substances in congested localities of the city.
The presence of thousand of unauthorised transport godowns storing a variety of flammable
metarial, recieved from suppliers located outside delhi and destined for end user both in Delhi
and out side Delhi. with absolutely no fire safety measures. The presence of commercial and
residential unauthorised building with poor fire safety, poor designed structure which collapse
within minutes of fire outbreak. The large scale JJ colonies posing serious problems to fire
fighters. Water shortage, exploding gas cylinders and hazard from live electric wires energised
through electricty theft, further compounds the problem. The presence of obstructions and
encroachments on the right of way in most congested localities posing serious problem of access
to fire fighting vehicles componded the vulnearability of the study.

Will cover 25 schools /Institutes /Coaching centres of different area of Delhi to study
vulnerability and preparedness related to fire and other disasters.

Literature Review & Case studies

Each year natural disasters take a heavy toll on human life and property. The United Nations
estimates that in the past two decades nearly three million lives have been lost to natural disasters
and some 800 million affected by them. Every year at least four cyclones of varying intensity hit
parts of India's nearly 6,000 km long coastline, earthquakes of varying magnitude rock northern
India and hundreds die of severe cold/ heat waves in north India.

Across the world or in our own backyard, disasters have devastating results due to inadequate
preparation, the latest being the Gujarat quake. Since natural calamities tend to be unavoidable
and earthquakes unpredictable, efforts have to be made to withstand the aftermath of
catastrophes. Disaster Management training is useful for NGOs, social work students or
volunteers providing support and rehabilitation measures during disasters, personnel of home
guards, Private Security guards, paramilitary organizations, civil defense personnel, scientists,
Teaching & Non- Teaching staff, meteorologists, and environmentalists. It also proves useful
for functionaries of rural development and primary health centers, administrative services and
relief workers.

Pune is top ranks in the road accidents. There were 402 deaths in last year due to road mishaps.
The total number of accident events were - 53 - 2157. The majority death occurs in age group of
16 – 25 years and the cause of death are head injuries.

Though it is not common in India, the incidences like fires in schools and taking lives of peer
children, incidences like fire in school in Tamilnadu has taken lives of seventy school children,
and the teachers were not able to give even first aid efficiently.

Teachers or religious leaders, and may be willing to assist in the promotion of emergency
programs within their ethnic or lingual community. They may offer valuable opinions on the
group’s needs, capabilities, and limitations, or provide suggestions on ways of reaching out.
Emergency education through schools is effective, as children tend to be attentive to discussions
on disasters. Children learn quickly and can transmit the information, often by translation, to
their family members. School boards and parents’ organizations may be willing to assist in
emergency preparedness programs and be able to provide volunteers and resources.

Thankfully the education of disaster management is already included in curricula of various

middle and secondary educations. This not only will make our future citizens learn about
disasters, but will also make them able to equip themselves to cope with various disasters in an
improved manner.

At a very fundamental level, knowledge of the vulnerability of developing countries to different

types of disasters is necessary for the most effective relief and preparedness planning. The
usefulness of a disaster database as a tool in this planning has become increasingly evident to
many government and international agencies engaged in disaster relief as well as in mitigation
and prevention programmers. Though most of the disasters can be prevented, sometimes it is
beyond the control of individual person, being prepared to handle it.

Large number of students in various academic institutions must learn to share the pain of those
who have suffered in an extraordinary tragedy. Without finding fault with government or other
agencies, the duty of every right thinking person at this moment is to take initiative and
contribute one’s mite in alleviating suffering in whichever way we can. Long term learning
measures were not undertaken after Gujarat earthquake. And if these are not undertaken again,
we will all have to blame ourselves for not equipping our country with better self-help and more
efficient information systems.

The earthquake in Gujarat and the subsequent chaos were indicators of how crucial prior
planning is in managing relief and rehabilitation during disasters. The Kutchh region required
massive and immediate assistance at that time, which came but was very poorly managed. This
made the need for a proper disaster mitigation plan very apparent. Learning from experience is
essential in building a knowledge resource which would help in being better prepared in the
future.

Let us wish that such calamities never happen again. But if they do happen, we must be
prepared. A report of the Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority said in the absence of
safety measures, schools across the state might expose nearly 600,000 students to various
hazards. [India News] Ahmadabad, Aug 26,2005. After a devastating blaze in a Tamil Nadu
school killed 95 children, an NGO in Gujarat has launched an initiative to train authorities in
schools to deal with fires and calamities like floods and earthquakes. Disaster Mitigation
Institute established in the early 1990s is now reaching out to schools in Ahmedabad, Bharuch,
Bhavnagar, Jamnagar and Rajkot, helping them plan safety measures.

"School safety in urban areas is more acutely vulnerable due to unrestricted land use, crowding
and bypassing of building laws. The school boards of towns can take a more active role in
promoting school safety," said Bhatt. The government's Common Minimum Programme for
governance puts emphasis on providing universal access to quality basic education, but making
this access safe is not on the agenda. (Indo Asian News Service)

Methodology and Data Source/ Collection

Approach will be the based-on integration of various datasets from various sources and
performing a comprehensive Risk Analysis exercise. This exercise shall be performed in
following steps
Step-1 Selection of schools and collection of different data like disasters, geology, details about
school, location of school, surrounding of school and facilities available near school.
Step-2 : Hazard Identification & Analysis:
It shall involve developing thematic maps for each hazard type, and following the overlaying to
derive the multi-hazard or composite hazard maps. Identification of the Hazards and
development of criteria for mapping of:

 Chemical/Industrial
 Fire
Step-3 Database Creation and Mapping

It shall emphasize like:

  Occurrences and frequency of hazard types/events
 Details about previous disasters

Step-4: Vulnerability Analysis:

Composite Vulnerability analysis with respect to possible disasters. will be developed based on
detailed sample surveillances to be conducted in the study area, along Primary data collection
and verification.

Step 5: Capacity Building

Capacity to cope with disasters will be assessed on the basis of accessibility to emergency
resources like fire stations, medical facilities, police stations, and schools and other safe
shelters, open areas, including in place DRR measures, level of risk perception/awareness,
response /preparedness, etc.

Data Analysis and Interpretation of Results

Based on collection of data will analyses and interpret

ANTICIPATED OUTCOME

 Analyse Urban fire and other disaster Risk Assessment, which give solution to mitigate
and reduce risk.
 Identification and categorization of “High Risk Areas” for prioritizing Risk Reduction
measures.
 Reduce the time and cost effectiveness in decisions related to Risk Reduction Measures
and planning and implementing Response mechanisms by integrating the measures for
individual hazards.
 Results of the present study will form a base line knowledge support for formulation of
Reducing response time, Resource allocation.
 Summary, and Conclusions
Best on all result will prepare summary and conclusion

References

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2- International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. World Disasters Report 2008.
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3- Disaster Research Center (DRC) Havidán Rodríguez, Director. Department of Sociology and
Criminal Justice University of Delaware Press Release

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 14. Times of India Pune Edition – Lightning strikes

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May 2019

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