Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event in Delhi school, Gupta called the Disaster Ready Schools Campaign a very important step, the Delhi government will work in this direction very carefully.
Photo: SNS
Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday emphasized that schools are the places where thousands of children are present and in case of any calamity or disaster, they should be ready and prepared to deal with any eventuality.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of an event in Delhi school, Gupta called the Disaster Ready Schools Campaign a very important step, the Delhi government will work in this direction very carefully. The schools will be prepared for disaster readiness with the invovement of the administration in imparting necessary training to the school students and teachers.
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As part of this campaign, she said, the students will not only learn about their own safety but will also emerge as brand ambassadors of vigilance, responsibility, and security awareness in the entire society.
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In this context, she said Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is to have a disaster ready country and disaster ready city. The preparedness should be adopted like a habit so that the country moves forward to zero casualties during the disasters. The aim of the campaign is to make every school of Delhi safe and secure.
The CM stated that children are at the heart of this initiative as their safety, understanding, and confidence are paramount. “Only a child who is prepared can make the right decisions in any difficult situation,” she averred. Hence, schools will provide specialized training, regular practice, and essential lessons regarding disaster management to ensure that every child can protect him/herself and others in a crisis situation.
Launching the Disaster Ready School campaign at the Springdales School, Pusa Road on Tuesday, the CM told the schoolchildren that the entire country needs to be prepared to withstand calamities the process will begin from the schools. To make Delhi a role model in this domain, the children will work as the brand ambassadors of safety.
Speaking on the occasion, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood called it a historic moment not only for Delhi but for the entire country when “we are taking a major step towards making our schools the ‘Disaster-Ready Capital’” just as we established electronic bus depots and moved towards becoming the Electric Mobility Capital”.
He further said that under the guidance of PM Modi, Delhi aims to become a national model of disaster-ready schools and lead the way for the rest of the country.
Pointing out that Delhi lies in Seismic Zone-4, a high-risk earthquake zone where quakes of magnitude 6.5 or more are possible, he said, “It reminded us that disasters are not just news items — they can become reality anytime.” In this context, the minister cited the February 2025 incident when an earthquake of magnitude 4 at a depth of only 5 km was recorded.
Notably, in the first phase of the campaign, 2,082 schools have been included, through which nearly 16.5 lakh students and 60,000 teachers will be trained in disaster preparedness activities.
The initiative includes mock drills, awareness programmes, School Disaster Management Plans (SDMP), hazard identification and mapping, installation of evacuation signage, and formation of School Disaster Management Committees.
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