The need for comprehensive framework on school safety came up for discussion at a meet on children charter with the thematic observation of ‘Make my school safe’ and ‘Make my city and village resilient’ at the 3rd World Congress on Disaster Management held at YMCA grounds here on Thursday.
The meeting witnessed an impressive attendance of 2,000 youth, children, parents and civil society across the city schools both private and government, teachers and other supporters towards demonstrating their understanding, experiences, successes and challenges and for mainstreaming into education curriculum . Chairperson for Protection of Child Rights G. Hymavathi, Head of Disasters and Emergencies from Save the Children Ray Kancharla, IAS officer from Assam Roshini Aparanji Korati, World Congress on Disaster Management convener S. Anand Babu, Convenor of UN Major Group for Children and Youth Moa Herrgard, District Education Officer G. Nagamani and child rights activist Narava Prakasa Rao participated in the discussions.
Local NGO partner Nature’s founder S. Balaraju elaborated that the present charter and special meeting being organised with the collaborative support of Unicef, Save the Children, Child Fund India, State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and other organisations would spearhead the school safety for implementation with representatives of the 65 countries and from across in Indian States.
Ms. Hymavathi in her address pointed out that children charter meeting was an event of community preparedness on disaster management, protection of children, implementation and monitoring diverse social missions connected with school safety and honour the UN Charter on India.
With this mission in notion she has called upon the State to honour the child rights through appropriate mechanism of capacity building and organising the communities prepared to tackle the disasters and ensure school safety.
Mitigation efforts
While mentioning the importance of this charter, Mr. Kancharla pointed out that the 20th century had witnessed a host of mitigation efforts against disasters and school safety. He said the charter meeting was envisaged to design a comprehensive framework on school safety and resilience against disasters.
Resilient efforts
Ms. Korati shared the disaster, school safety and resilient efforts being made in Assam and called for a Good Samaritan lead in ensuring the child rights. Ms. Herrgard elaborated the efforts being made to ensure the orderly progress of children and young people and called for a world order in which all would have a co-existential living promoting the child rights and their safety.
