Report: Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction/Climate Change Adaptation in

Special Education, Shimla

2014

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Report

Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction/Climate Change Adaptation in

Special Education at Shimla, Himachal Pradesh

On 15th November 2014

Background: Children are more vulnerable during any disaster and it can be much

more complex when the children are differently-abled as their reaction to the

disaster will be different than normal children. The Visually impaired, hearing &

speech impaired, mobility impaired and with cognitive impairment need more time

to respond to a disastrous situation. Hence, building capacities of such children is

more challenging than normal children. There is an urgent need to address this

pressing need in the institutions catering exclusively for children with special needs.

One way of reducing the risk is through preparedness and planning to face

different kinds of emergency situations that may arise in their institution, hostel or

home. Government agencies have been attempting to implement disaster risk

reduction initiatives in schools for several years but very little has been done in the

schools serving children with special needs. Recently, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)

Himachal Pradesh along with Disaster Management Cell, Municipal Corporation,

Shimla took a very important step to build capacity of the teachers serving in

inclusive schools with the special needs students.

On 15th of November, a training workshop was organized in Shimla on

Mainstreaming Disaster Risk Reduction/Climate Change Adaptation in Special

Education. GeoHazards Society (GHS) is a not for profit organisation have been

working for the disaster preparedness for the special-needs children, their caregivers

and their institutions for several years now. GHS was requested by the Disaster

Management Cell, Municipal Corporation, Shimla to facilitate the one day workshop

where teachers responsible for and trained to teach the special-need children

participated. The main objective of one day workshop was to identify the gaps in

disaster preparedness for the differently-abled children and to create a group of

trainers within the city who can take disaster safety for the differently-abled children

forward in Himachal Pradesh.

Shimla is prone to multi-hazards with earthquakes, landslide, rock fall,

cloudburst, road accidents, etc. Shimla falls in Seismic zone IV (as per the Seismic

Zoning map of India) which is the high risk zone and the district is likely to be

affected by earthquakes with intensity upto VIII. The 1905 Kangra earthquake also

affected Shimla and with the growing infrastructure and buildings, the vulnerability

of the city has increased many fold. The erratic rainfall due to the climate change has

also increased the landslide hazard in the Shimla city and surrounding areas and in

future this may cause acute water related problems in the city.

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Workshop: The workshop was formally

started by the Ms. Komal Kantaria,

Shimla City Project Coordinator of UNDP

India. Ms. Kantaria provided a short

background of the project under which

the workshop is being facilitated and

requested the participants to be

cooperative and attentive during the

entire workshop. Mr. D N Azad, District

Coordinator of Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan

(SSA) welcomed the participants as

organizer of the workshop and provided

a glimpse on the present status of how

SSA is doing to mainstreaming disaster

risk reduction activities in special-needs

education and requested the participants

to use the opportunity provided by the

presence of the resource persons from

GHS and get their schools onto the path

of preparedness.

Thereafter, resource persons from GHS

commenced with the technical sessions

on disaster preparedness for the special-

needs schools. The key sessions of the

training were a) hazard profile of Shimla

b) importance of preparedness in special-

needs schools c) steps towards special

need schools disaster safety d) fire safety

including lecture hall demo of fire

extinguishers, fire alarms etc. e) planning

work at schools for special needs students

including preparation for mock drill at

school and f) personal preparedness for

care givers families. A group work was

conducted to discuss and identify

problems and hindrances in

implementing of disaster preparedness in

schools with special-needs children.

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Accessibility is a major problem for the

persons with special-needs. However, the

GHS resource person opined that access is

not just limited to provision for

wheelchair into a building. Access

includes access to services, utilities,

assistive aids and it is a general attitude.

The National Building Code has provided

codes for the accessibility in buildings

and Central PWD has published a guideline with provisions for providing physical

access in the institutions and buildings. But, these are seldom followed when a

building is constructed. He provided a detailed account on the importance of

accessibility in minimizing disaster risk for the differently-abled persons. Various

photos showing architectural barriers and inability of builders, administration and

the community to make a barrier free environment for the differently-abled were

shown and discussed.

Being located in an earthquake prone area, non-structural hazards mitigation will be

an important part of the overall preparedness in the school. Research in the subject

indicates that over 50% of the losses in an earthquake are due to falling hazards or

non-structural hazards (i.e.: the contents of the building falling down and causing

injuries, damage and blocked exit ways). Detailed visual presentations were done on

all topics including falling hazards and

mitigation to avoid losses such as injury,

death, blockage of exits and financial loss.

The non-structural hazards can cause

major problem during evacuation by

blocking passages creating confusion

among the special needs students.

Many past earthquakes including the

Haiti earthquake (2010) Sichuan

earthquake (2008) in China, Muzaffarabad earthquake (2005) and the Bhuj

earthquake (2001) shows the vulnerability of school children in day-time

earthquakes mostly due to unprepared schools. Though night-time earthquakes are

more catastrophic as it affects the response capacities of the administration, in day-

time earthquakes, it has been noticed that the percentage of children dying are far

higher due to unsafe environments in unprepared schools. Moreover due climate

change the intensity and magnitude of the hydrological hazards may increase

causing severe risk to the schools from cloudburst, landslide, and flashflood due to

poor planning and selection of school building construction site. So, there is dire

need of a robust planning for the schools to make the occupants safer. GHS resource

persons went through the stages on how the trainees are to prepare a School Disaster

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Management Plan (SDMP) after the training for their respective school, forming

School Safety Committee, Disaster Management Teams inside school and working

out an evacuation route map or disabled user friendly tactile maps for the schools,

audible alerts for the visual impaired and to organize mock drills. Several trainees

were from the inclusive schools where differently-abled children were

mainstreamed with normal children. So, a School Disaster Management Plan for

normal schools with special provisions for the differently-abled children, where they

have to be assisted by designated classmates or a staff member. The SDMP is to

include the planning for the preparedness of each differently-abled student in

advance and also for addressing accessibility issues in the school.

After the lunch break resource

persons discussed in detailed on the fire

hazard and how to prepare for

preventing fire disaster in special-needs

schools using various types of fire alarm

considering the special-need. A detailed

presentation was done on how

differently-abled people can sense a fire

early and evacuate as soon as possible. A

demonstration was done inside training hall on the use of different types of fire

extinguishers and also an audible fire alarm for the visually challenged children.

This was followed by a group

activity in which participants were

divided into three groups: one discussing

preparedness for the hearing impaired,

one for the visually challenged and the

last group for the people with multiple

disabilities.

They were tasked to work out the

activities to ensure overall preparedness

of the school leading to awareness

activities, preparedness planning, fixing

non-structural hazards and conduct of preparedness drills with an estimate of the

timelines for these activities and costs thereof. Each team leader presented a

summary of their discussions. Other groups were also given opportunities to

comment on these presentations and GHS resource persons discussed the findings in

detail and suggested approaches to ensure practical application of these discussions

in their schools.

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In the concluding session, the teachers

were sensitized on the importance of

family preparedness in their own homes.

The families of teachers working in

schools should have prepared a plan in

advance and must be able to manage the

crisis on their own without the presence of

the teacher as s/he will be busy taking

care of the special needs children in their

own school. The trainees were taken

through the steps they would need to take

with their families to ensure that they are

prepared and requested to discuss this at

home the same evening. Resource

materials provided included soft copies of

the presentations, guidelines for non-

structural hazard mitigation, the CPWD

manual and several other useful

documents. Overall, it was an intensive,

participatory workshop where

participants got to share and discuss their

thoughts and ideas on how barriers can be

minimized for disaster preparedness in

special-needs schools.

Way forward: A participatory workshop

can only be successful if the learnings are

implemented in field. SSA with help from

the UNDP City Coordinator has to keep

following up with the participants and their schools to ensure this.

During the workshop it was decided that a follow up extensive workshop for two

days will be organized in the same subject with special focus on each kind of

disability.

The represented schools will be requested to present the SDMP of their schools and

update on the activities carried out for disaster preparedness for the special-needs

children. The SSA and City Coordinator of UNDP can take a few steps as mentioned

below to take the disaster preparedness for special-needs school initiative further.

1) The SDMA and UNDP must assist the SSA in developing a long term

vision for disaster safety for special-needs schools through the

development of a District Action Plan for School Safety addressing special-

needs issues.

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2) SSA must follow up with the participating schools to implement the

learnings from the training and urge the Education Department to follow

up on the timelines for each activity from the schools and also the

submission of the school disaster management plan (SDMPs) for each of

the participating schools within forty days of the training.

3) SSA should ensure that at least two mass preparedness drills are

conducted every year to mark the anniversary of the 1905 Kangra

Earthquake on April 4 and the International Day of Disaster Reduction on

October 13. In case, April 4th is not convenient for all schools, the SSA

should set a date in April (such as the third Wednesday of April) every

year to carry out drills in every school in the district.

4) As mentioned above more than 50% casualty during earthquake happens

due to the objects which can fall, topple and slide. After going through the

discussions with the trainees about their respective schools it has come to

notice that all of the schools have a lot of these falling hazards. Much of

these hazards are objects that are no longer useful to the school and should

be disposed of. Using the opportunity of the Government of India’s

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the SSA should bear upon the schools to dispose

of these items and reducing falling and fire hazards in each school. This

will also ensure the children have a healthy and safer study environment.

5) The special-needs schools that participated in the training may be helped

by the District Disaster Management Authority to mitigate non-structural

hazards in the schools. Adequate guidance and the soft copy of a manual

for addressing hazards in schools have been provided to the participants.

6) Several schools seem to have been supplied with fire extinguishers, but

they have not been provided with any kind of training on using these. As

part of the District School Safety Action Plan, the SSA should collaborate

with the local fire department for systematic hands-on training to the

School Safety Committees in each school in the district, regardless of

ownership (Government and Private schools).

7) Once the SDMPs have been delivered to the SSA or DDMA, SSA should

ensure that the First Aid teams in each school get a certified hands-on

training in First Aid through the District Red Cross Society or local

Hospitals/ NRHM.

8) The SSA should ensure that each new school buildings constructed for

inclusive schools will have barrier free access from 1st October 2014

9) SSA should also ensure that every new school building has two staircases

each and every classroom has two doors opening outside as stipulated in

the National Building Code (NBC 2005).

10) The SSA with help from the DDMA should also undertake a building

inventory survey of all schools in the district regardless of ownership. This

should collect information from each school as per the format and example

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provided in Appendix 1. This information will be useful in formulating a

strategy for detailed assessment and retrofitting of school buildings.

11) Once the DDMA has collected information on all schools buildings, it

should work out a plan for carrying out rapid assessment of prioritized

buildings based on occupancy, age of the building etc.

12) Once the assessment is completed, the district can seek funding support

through SDMA for retrofitting of selected buildings.

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No. of Buildings in the campus=……………… Staff = ……….. nos Students = …………. nos Total =A B C D E F   G

Building no Name

No of storeys

No of Classrooms

No of doors in each class

Floorwise Peak Occupancy  No of Staircases

1

2

Total buildings =  0

…………………………………………………………..School, …………………….. District

Total no of persons at school

BUILDING INVENTORISATION FORMAppendix 1 

Staff 35 nos Students 1555 nos Total A B C D E F   G

Building no NameNo of storeys

No of Classrooms

No of doors in each class

Floorwise Peak Occupancy 

No of Staircases

1 Example building A Ground 10 1 550 1First  8 1 400 1Second 8 1 400 1

2 Example building B Ground 6 1 240

Total buildings = 2 1590

XYZ……. School, ……… District 

Total no of persons at school

BUILDING INVENTORISATION FORMSample