Following the directives of the Directorate of Education (DoE), a disaster response training or mock drill for both students and staff was conducted at Vidya Bal Bhawan Senior Secondary School situated in East Delhi’s Mayur Vihar area on Wednesday.
Under the nationwide mega civil defence mock drill ‘Operation Abhyaas’, mock drills simulating multiple hostile scenarios like air raids, multiple fire emergencies and search and rescue operations among others were carried out.
During the Mock drill, alarm sirens were played and students were asked to stay inside their classrooms and sit under their desks while covering their heads with school bags or hands. This is called ‘Drop, Cover and Hold On exercise’ which protects one in an earthquake and air strike like situations where heavy objects can fall upon them.
But during the mock drill, all students were not seen under their tables, some 10-12 students, who are part of the Disaster Management Committee of the school, ran outside their classrooms in order to bring all the students under safe shelter and prevent them from becoming targets of any probable air strike. These students, who were not more than 15 year old, have then demonstrated their active response in case of an injury or casualty of their fellow student.
“There are currently 16 students in our Disaster Management Committee, mostly from class 9 to 12 and science section. The first thing we teach them is not to panic in such situations as they have to take care of others as well. Then comes the training which includes giving first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR, making temporary stature for injured students and fire training,” said Mamta Narula, in charge of the Disaster Management Committee.
“But this time, the training was different. Earlier, we used to train them to run outside as soon as the siren blares, but this time, we reversed that, they are being told to stay under a safe shelter and not to go outside at all,” she added.
The disaster response training does not end here, they have also been taught about blackouts during night.
“We taught them about dos and don’ts to be followed during black out, which include not using back up options for electricity, and no voice and indication of presence should be there. Summer vacations are going to take place from May 15, this time we urged them not to ask their parents for a trip or so. We hope they will not only follow the guidelines, but will also make their parents and neighbors about it,” said the Principal Dr Satvir Sharma.
The mock drills come amid the missile strikes by the Indian armed forces early Wednesday on nine terror targets in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK). The military strikes were conducted as Operation Sindoor two weeks after the Pahalgam attack that killed 26 civilians.
