Honeywell Safe Schools Program reaches 52,000 children, 45,000 parents and 2,200 teachers across 50 Govt Schools

New Delhi (03/12/2019): Among all public amenities, schools and the children inside them are among the most vulnerable groups during any disaster. Thousands of children lose their lives every year in deadly disasters, mostly while attending classes. According to a government data, over 17 million children study in about 1,57,000 schools across 110 districts located in earthquake zone 5. As today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders, no task is more important as creating a safe learning environment for them. Children need not be mere recipients of emergency aid or risk reduction support. They can be leaders and agents of change for a culture of disaster safety.

Given this belief, SEEDS in 2017 with support from Honeywell India piloted the Honeywell Safe Schools Program in Delhi. Today, the program has already reached out to 52,000 children, 45,000 parents and 2,200 teachers across 50 Government schools in East Delhi.

Honeywell Safe Schools is a school safety program that is built on SEEDS’ child-first approach to risk reduction. The program empowers children to become change agents for building resilience in their communities. It involves structural assessments of schools by engineers and architects; evaluation of risk perception among children, teachers and parents and examination of preparedness in the face of any natural or manmade disaster. The pioneering program looks at risk reduction holistically, and seeks to ensure that children go to school without fear, remain safe in school and return home safely!

The concept and approach of school safety also aligns to multiple goals within global frameworks, to which the Government of India is a signatory. It plays a key role in both disaster risk reduction and quality education targets.

Goal 4 of the Sustainable Development Goals on quality education includes a specific call to “Build and upgrade education facilities that are child, disability and gender sensitive and provide safe, non-violent, inclusive and effective learning environments for all”. The broader approach to safety reflects in targets around gender equality (Goal 5) and access to water and sanitation (Goal 6).

Target E of the Sendai Framework aims to have national and local plans for disaster risk reduction in place by 2020. Comprehensive school safety programs and disaster management planning will be a critical part of building these capacities.

Honeywell Safe Schools Program covers key essentials of a safe and secure school. It envisions making schools that are exposed to multiple hazards in East District of Delhi, safer through a comprehensive school safety approach.