Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS) has partnered with the Government of Uttarakhand and Honeywell India to introduce a pioneering school safety programme in 100 Government schools across Dehradun and Haridwar.

Speaking at the Safety First Carnival organised as part of the programme on Wednesday, chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat said, “Children are our future citizens and it is our prerogative to provide them with a safe learning environment.

This disaster risk reduction programme resonates with our state government’s recent call to corporates and NGOs to take ownership of schools, and help improve the quality of infrastructure and education.

We can ensure safety with the help of awareness. It is a proved significant tool towards the safety of children.

It is important to make the stakeholders aware of their rights as well as information that can help them become risk prepared.

We have planned to build wooden buildings for schools in Uttarakhand to save our children from hazards and risks; it will be economical as well.”

SEEDS co-founder Manu Gupta said, “We are pleased to partner with the government of Uttarakhand to bring our programme to Dehradun and Haridwar. The Honeywell Safe Schools programme is built on SEEDS’ child-first approach towards risk reduction, empowering children to become change agents for building resilience in the communities.”

Honeywell India president Akshay Bellare said, “We are deeply invested in Uttarakhand with our strong presence, including a world-class state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, a 2.3-acre campus, and more than 250 employees creating world-class products for India and the world.  Honeywell is a global leader in safety and security technologies; this programme is a natural extension to bring our understanding of safety to the communities we serve.”

The program will empower 31,000 students, 45,000 parents and 700 teachers across 100 Government schools in Haridwar and Dehradun districts to be risk-ready.