Schools eager to prepare students for disasters - The Times of India on Mobile

NAGPUR: Uttarakhand tragedy has
shown how helpless humans
against nature's fury. However,
proper training in survival skills
go a long way in saving lives
during either natural or man-made
disasters and many schools in
Nagpur are putting that on their
priority list. Deaven Dasture,
director of Royal Gondwana Public
School said, "We will be
approaching the city-based
National Civil Defence College
(NCDC) to help impart training to
our students. Disasters can strike
anywhere and anyone, hence, it is
important that students are trained
to be prepared for such
calamities."
The NCDC is an unique initiative of
the central government, where
trained disaster management
experts train various organizations
and local governments to prepare a
civil defence force to help during
calamities. A part of the ministry
of home affairs, NCDC has started a
pilot project on the lines of
National Cadet Corps (NCC). TOI
had reported about this project in
August last year in which schools
will be given training to create the
Civil Defence Cadet Corps (CDCC).
Earlier, speaking to TOI, the
college's director GS Saini had said,
"The government has agreed to
run the pilot project in about 100
schools across the country. In
CDCC the training imparted will
focus on handling emergencies that
one is likely to face in daily life."
Saini believes that CDCC will find
many takers as the traditional
option of NCC offers a limited
scope.
"A large number of schools across
the country have not subscribed to
NCC because of its focus on
defence service related activities.
In order to induce these schools to
contribute towards nation building
an alternative activity for disaster
management needs to be offered
and starting CDCC will provide the
impetus," he said.
CDCC aims to increase the
preparedness levels for safety in
schools and enhance it through
skill development. Training will be
provided not only for disaster
prevention and mitigation but also
to mobilize trained manpower for
district administration during
actual events. While fire emergency
is the area where more schools
focus on, CDCC will take this a step
further. Students will be trained to
help out citizens at large in case of
disasters like flooding, earthquake
or even a gas leak.
Rachna Singh, principal of St.
Ursula Girls' High School said, "Our
school is registered with NCDC and
we take training from them as well
as have disaster management
sessions conducted by the fire
safety department."
Jaspal Singh, principal of Guru
Nanak High School said, "This kind
of training is very important we
too get in touch with NCDC. For
kids it is most important that they
learn the basics of survival like
how to evacuate buildings in case
of fire, how to maintain discipline
when leaving a disaster zone etc."