Disaster mgmt must include digital threats: Delhi edu minister

While no official figures have been shared, more than 500 schools last year and at least 300 this year have received bomb threats that later turned out to be hoaxes.

Education minister Ashish Sood on Tuesday said digital threats should also be included under disaster preparedness training at schools, in light of the increasing instances of hoax bomb threats to schools.

Disaster mgmt must include digital threats: Delhi edu minister

Speaking at the launch of the ‘Disaster Ready School’ campaign at Springdales School, Pusa Road, he said, “I believe that in today’s digital age, bomb hoax calls and other panic-triggering digital threats also need to be part of disaster preparedness.”

“When a bomb hoax call is received how should teachers react? How should ‘Aapda Mitras’ react? How should non-teaching staff respond? Are we prepared for such digital disasters? We must integrate these into our disaster management framework,” Sood said, adding teachers should act as disaster mentors.

While no official figures have been shared, more than 500 schools last year and at least 300 this year have received bomb threats that later turned out to be hoaxes. Last year, a school student, 17, was “traced” after he had sent threatening emails to hundreds of schools, but he was not apprehended.

16-year-old Sarthak Grover, a student of class 11, said, “A month ago, when we received the hoax bomb threat, the wailing sound of the sirens alarmed us all. We emptied the classrooms and rushed to the field same as we do in case of fire drill.” Initially, he said, they were not aware of the reason but realised once they saw the bomb squad arrive.

Another student, Schyla Madhukar, 16, said bomb threats create a lot of panic, particularly among younger students. “Training for situation will actually help us avoid confusion and prepare us to calmly deal with them.”

Under the initial stage of ‘Disaster Ready School’ campaign, launched in collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority, there will be a two-day training at 2,082 schools in six district of the directorate of education — central, New Delhi, north east-I, north east-II, west-A and west-B.

Around 70 schools will be covered each day over 35-40 working days to all shortlisted schools are covered by January 15, 2026, a DoE circular released last month said.

Training will be carried out according to the School Safety Policy of 2016 under the national disaster management guidelines. Schools will be trained to tackle with disasters specific to Delhi, such as earthquakes, heatwaves, fires, flooding and waterlogging, and industrial hazards.

The launch was also attended by Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta and lieutenant governor VK Saxena. They, too, emphasised the need for disaster preparedness among schools primarily since they have a huge population.