Parents in Delhi most worried over accidents, teasing, bullying in schools: SEEDS study
The study titled “How Safe Are Our Kids” was released on Thursday by Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS). The study is based on 1,035 responses collected from parents and students in East Delhi on perception of risk and understanding of safety measures.
For Delhi parents, the risk of road accidents is the greatest fear they have, followed by fear of bullying and teasing while sending their kids to schools, a study has revealed.
The study titled “How Safe Are Our Kids” was released on Thursday by Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS). The study is based on 1,035 responses collected from parents and students residing in East Delhi on perception of risk and understanding of safety measures.
“Ironically, most parents feared road accidents and bullying, but failed to recognize more serious life risks from natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods,” the study found.
The study also found that 53% schools in Delhi are at highest risk from earthquakes, including all 624 schools in East Delhi.
SEEDS also launched the Honeywell Safe Schools programme, which will be focussed on 50 schools in the east Delhi area for the next three years and is looking to “empower 25,000 students, 40,000 parents, and 1,000 teachers”.
The three-year programme will focus on orienting staff based on risk assessment of each participating school and conducting exercises to make aware the students, teachers and parents in a such situations.
SEEDS will begin its programme with 32 Delhi government and 18 East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) schools in the first phase and has plans to make it a city-wide campaign after three years.
Manu Gupta, executive director of SEEDS, said there was a need to create awareness among students, teachers, parents and civic authorities about high potential risks.
“Often high potential risks are not recognised as imminent threats. Most parents, in our study, expressed worry about threats at hand like road safety, bullying and even fire. So there is a need to create awareness among various stakeholders to mitigate the impact of disasters,” Gupta said.
Kamal Kishore, member of National Disaster Management Authority, said focusing on school safety is important to achieve the aim of overall disaster risk reduction.