Children are one of the most vulnerable groups in any disaster. Under normal conditions, there are family and community supportive systems apart from governmental and private systems on which children depend for their development and protection. Children are the worst sufferers in disasters, since they depend on others for support and most of these support systems may suddenly collapse or weaken during disasters. Disasters shatter the sense of well-being of a child by destroying normal life routines and thus deeply hamper the process of their development.

Children suffer in all phases of disaster. Factors such as age affect their vulnerability and ability to cope and survive in a disaster. They are also the most invisible victim in most of disaster response, recovery and rehabilitation processes, except when they are orphaned. A child suffers varying levels of deprivation and trauma- physical, social and psychological. They are often separated from an environment they are familiar with and their families with limited understanding of the event due to lack of knowledge resulting in increased vulnerability to exploitation, sexual and other abuse including trafficking, child labour, disease and ill health. They also find it difficult to cope, in the process become withdrawn and non- communicative. 

Nevertheless, the education bears the first brunt in almost all the emergencies; education is suspended/ disrupted for unlimited period. When education is interrupted; it results in students drop out, negative and permanent socio- psycho impacts on students.

Schools are an integral part of our social construct. They not only serve as educational institutes but also shape social conduct and beliefs. In a rapidly changing society schools have a particular role to play in preserving what we hold important as a society and preparing individuals to contribute to development process.  Among all civic amenities, schools in particular are vulnerable to disasters while developmental initiative entails schools to play a role in disaster preparedness and response. The present state is not only contrary but also apathetic to developmental initiatives.

Preparation of School Disaster Management Plan.

The School Disaster Management Plan would be prepared in a participatory manner where all the actors of a school are involved. The following steps would be carried out to successfully formulate and implement a school safety plan:

Step 1: Awareness rising on school related hazards and vulnerabilities allow the different school actors including teachers, students, school management committee members and guardians to graphs the need for School Disaster Management Plan

Step 2: Identification of hazards and vulnerabilities, structural and non-structural variables, in-house capacities and roles and responsibilities of different stakeholders allow them to realize there relative stand point in terms of vulnerability and help them to plan effectively.

Step 3: Training teachers on how to develop evacuation plan, emergency response capacity, first aid, fire safety, search and rescue, disaster management plan for school to ensure the sustainability of the School Disaster Management Plan.

Step 4: Formation of various task forces including, warning & awareness task force, evacuation task force, Search & Rescue task force, first aid task force, fire safety task force, psychosocial aid task force, site security task force etc. and to assign and sensitize roles and responsively of these task force in time of emergencies.

Step 5: Listing the contact information of all the resource agencies for emergency management

Step 6: Conducting emergency evacuation mock drill to participate, demonstrate and test the evacuation, rescue, fire safety, and first aid skills acquired by the students.