PANEL ORGAN - KIIT University

management. Natural Disaster is the consequence of a Natural hazard for instance
volcanic eruption, earthquake, floods, draught, the most common in Nigeria are flood,
draught, wild wind storm or sandstorm, erosion, etc. Disasters occur when hazards meet
the vulnerability of the children. This study tends to look at the social and economic
effect of natural disaster on children in some part of Nigeria in West Africa.
KARIM, A.H.M., Zehaduland Islam, M. Zulfiquar Ali, International Islamic University
Malaysia, Gombak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, E-mail:
Flood Affected Children in Rural Bangladesh: Questions of Rights and Privileges
The unprecedented flood in Bangladesh recurrently destroys enormous crops and
settlements in the country. This devastating flood is also the principal contributor for
many physical changes in the riverine areas, and consequently it intensities heavy pressure
on the rural areas of the country. Riverbank erosion thus, annually compels a huge number
of its poverty-stricken people to leave their houses, and as such, forcing them to take
shelter to a comparatively safe neighboring place. Flood becomes so disastrous that it
often spoils the rural communication disrupts its total road-linkages, putting the people
with heavy pressure socially and economically. Because of this disruption, the children
from the affected families have to stay at home, remaining fully detached from their
schools and education. They become the victim of circumstances, where their sociocultural
rights and privileges remain fully unprotected and ignored. Children remain
uncared in regard to having access to food and nutrition, where in many cases, they do not
even get proper health care facilities. This paper thus, attempts to make an assessment of
the socio-cultural situation of the flood affected children, and explores in details about
their problems relating to their rights and privileges. The paper will provide contextual
ethnographic data from a village located in the northern part of Bangladesh and
accordingly, will raise the critical issues related to children’s rights and privileges during
such environmental disaster.
KHAN, Amir Ali* and Shagufta Naseem Khan**, *National Institute of Disaster
Management, 5B, Indraprastha Estate, Ring Road, New Delhi -110002, India, **Freelance
Consultant, Working for Child Rights in Disaster Risk Reduction. E-mail:
*, **
Child Rights to Disaster Safety – Case Study of School Safety Programme in Delhi
Among various rights, children have the right to safe, healthy and conducive environment
for education. It has been documented from the past disasters that school buildings had
been destroyed due to earthquakes and other natural disasters throughout the world,
causing deaths to large number of students, teachers and other functionaries of the
schools. Few of the prominent earthquakes like Sichuan (2008), Kashmir (2005), Bam
(2003), Bhuj (2001) and Armenia (1988) had caused huge devastations to the school
buildings taking away thousands of precious lives of school going children and teachers.
Schools provide tremendous opportunity in developing the culture of preparedness and
culture of prevention against hazards like fire and earthquakes. Similarly, resources
available with schools like buildings can be utilized for emergency shelters and relief
centers. Vulnerability of schools in Delhi is quite high, where schools are being run in all
sorts of buildings and premises with limited know-how about disasters safe construction.
Government of Delhi is making an attempt to reduce the vulnerability of schools by taking
structural and nonstructural measures at school levels. The paper explores the efforts of
the state government in dealing with the situation. It also draws attention to all those
nonstructural mitigation measures which come with little effort and are least costly, but