Duck under your desks,” rings out a command at a classroom in Shimla. The children oblige dutifully. Not quite what a teacher would expect the students to do in school, but it’s a commendable measure, considering that it’s a safety drill to prepare against earthquakes, a unique initiative in the country launched in some schools in and around Shimla.

“We can’t avert earthquakes but can prepare ourselves to mitigate the loss following a disaster,” says Niharika, a class V student at the Government Senior Secondary School, Chhota Shimla. “This is just a part of the School Earthquake Safety Initiative Shimla (SESIS),” inform the other students.

The programme, launched by the Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), an NGO, is complemented by the government’s directive that all new school buildings will be quake resistant. “There’s a need for spreading awareness about safety measures and the government has already moved to make school buildings quake resistent,” says S.C. Negi, principal secretary, PWD, Himachal.

Himachal witnessed its worst quake in April 1905 in Kangra, which killed nearly 20,000 people, and Shimla is considered one of the most vulnerable towns. “But even a hundred years down the line a lot of lessons are yet to be learnt,” says Paula Silva, senior programme officer, SEEDS.

The project, undertaken by the Humanitarian Aid Department of the European Commission, has already sensitised schoolchildren and the local community, and is now working on changing the schools’ structural designs. SEEDS sought government help, conducted a survey in various government schools in the district in association with the engineers of NIT, Hamirpur, and foreign experts, and then worked out a plan to make them quake resistent. “Now, we are executing it by involving local masons and residents in five schools,” says Silva.

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