Handy booklets for students...

Schools to get booklets for emergencies

BMC plans to distribute booklets containing information on all sorts of natural and man-made disasters for students

SUDHIR SURYAWANSHI

After the incident in which a van carrying schoolchildren to a Jogeshwari school killed five children, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is preparing a disaster management booklet for each and every school in the city. At present, BMC is making the booklet for its 1,200 BMC-run schools across the city and later on private schools too will prepare such booklets.
The disaster management booklet for the Lal Bahadur Shastri Marg Municipal School at Mulund is now ready and will serve to be a model for schools across the city. The elaborate disaster management booklet can be used during emergencies like floods, building collapses or fires. It will contain details about emergency exits, evacuation routes, places where they can take shelter, layout of the school building, contact numbers of nearest hospitals, police stations, fire brigades, school authorities, etc. Moreover, information about earthquakes, landslides, industrial and chemical accidents, cyclones too will be given.
S S Shinde, deputy municipal commissioner (education) said that students are a vulnerable group during natural and man-made disasters and need special attention. “In emergencies, this disaster management training will help students save themselves. It will also create awareness among them. Through training and this special booklet, the response time of students in such situations will be reduced,” he added.
“Once the BMC prepares the booklets, we will also ask private schools to make such disaster management booklets part of their curriculum and distribute them to students,” said Madhukar Sanap, the district project manager of BMC.
To implement this plan effectively, the BMC has decided to give disaster management training to BMC and private school principals. A two-day workshop addressed by experts on the topic will be attended by 1,000 principals in the city. Subsequently, the sub-committees will be formed to look after implementation of the plan. “The workshop will be divided into five sessions and take place in the first week of May. Each session will be attended by 200 principals from both private as well as BMC schools. We also plan to tie up with citybased NGOs and the Maharashtra Education Technical department,” said Shinde.

The disaster management booklet can be used during emergencies like floods, building collapses or fires