Kolkata: Following the devastating fire that ravaged the century-old museum at Ballygunge Science College recently, the question of response in the face of disaster has been raised again. On Sunday, in the concluding session of two-day International Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction(ICDRR) 2016, a novel initiative was launched - a program where school students, teachers and all the relevant authorities will be trained in how to respond to any form of disaster.
The training programme, PEER, will be conducted by Institution for Disasters, Emergency & Accidents (IDEA). Teams of trainers will be visiting schools across Kolkata and Asansol to give demonstrations and hold workshops in face of any disaster - be it earthquake or riots. "The program has already been rolled out in Hyderabad. Now it has come to Kolkata. For the disabled students, we have Braille and audio system to prepare them on how to react in case of a disaster," IDEA director Saurabh Dalal said.
Dalal launched the program at ICDRR 2016, which was organized in association with Nepal Centre for Disaster Management and in collaboration with the Bengal department of disaster management and department of statistics and programme implementation.
"This is a structured programme on school safety and to create awareness in schools. The teams will visit a number of schools and not only the students but also the staff will be trained on how to be prepared and respond in an emergency crisis. The Government of India has as of now shortlisted around 500 schools in the country. A good number of these schools are in Kolkata and Asansol," said Nitin Chawla, who is supervisor of the same programme in Hyderabad.
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