All of us have been shocked and saddened by the death of more than 90 school children in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. Such images of abject grief, of victims, of largely avoidable man-made disasters, occur repeatedly in India and are soon forgotten till the next incident jolts public memory again. The tragedy in Tamil Nadu occurred mainly due to the unsafe structure of the school, blocking off the only escape route of the children and due to “instructions” by the teachers to the students not to move from their places, whereas their response should have been to evacuate the children immediately and avoid the tragedy.

It is a distressing fact that most schools in our country are built with minimum concern for safety and teachers are not trained on basic life saving procedures to be followed in case of emergencies.

While the Tamil Nadu tragedy is still poignant in our minds, there is an urgent need to appraise how safe our schools in Bangalore are? We are initiating a dialogue with all concerned organizations, Government departments, Educational Institutions, Public and students to try and enumerate the essentials of handling emergencies is greatly needed.

Some of the issues we are trying to raise are:

• Press for an audit of Bangalore schools in terms of their fire safety equipments and infrastructure. Are the provisions of the National Building Code being followed in the construction of schools and colleges?

• What is the safety training provided to teachers and are they being followed? Are they adequate?

• Is there a need to enforce safety training / drill in schools as a part of curriculum (as in the case of Environment Science)?

• Is there preparedness in terms of a disaster management plan being available in such instances?