Earthquake Preparedness Campaign : A Newspaper Prepares a city for the Unknowable

Campaign Presentation

India on shaky ground at a speed of 5 cm/year

Science explains that India is crashing into Asia at roughly 5 cm northward every year. This is the key

cause of earthquakes in India.

Roger Bilham, (geologist), believes that 60%+ of the Himalayan region is overdue for an earthquake of magnitude 8+ ….equivalent to a nuclear explosion of 150 megatonnes –

enough to destroy houses in the Ganges valley, Delhi and several hastily-built cities.

Yet, the country sleeps

India has had 5 moderate earthquakes since 1988 as reminders to improve the earthquake preparedness of the country. 10,000 people died in 1993 in the Latur earthquake, 20,000 died in the Bhuj earthquake in 2001 . Millions were rendered homeless. Seismologists say that for India the worst is probably yet to come

Across the world, countries have taken advantage of the experiences from these events, but in India we have paid no heed to these reminders.

The number of persons interested in improving earthquake preparedness in the country is negligible and they are largely in the academia.

Shaky foundations

Nobody even knows whether ‘Indian Standard Criteria for Earthquake Resistant Design’ exist.

India's urban-development ministry asked states to upgrade building codes, but states have ignored it.

With architects in short supply, 80% houses are owner-built.

It costs an additional 2-4% to build more suitable housing.

It is lack of knowledge and skills that is the main problem, rather than the cost of

the work.

Aftershocks and afterthoughts

It takes a minute to destroy a city….years to

rebuild….a lifetime to heal scarred emotions.

Each earthquake became just another story about relief and rescue, people

posting pictures of donations on Social Media and collecting

likes, bravehearts being lauded, vacuuous emotion ridden

platitudes on Radio, and poetry about how we

will overcome.

But, what happens after media forgets

the quake?

No one will know how many people died because of shoddily-built buildings allowed by lax inspectors and

inadequate building codes.

The raw material for our idea was getting stronger with every passing quake. We had to go beyond counting the dead and lauding relief operations.

No one, took the issue head on. It is here that Dainik Jagran had to be the agent of change.

The bigger risks are Lack of preparedness,

and collapsing buildings.

The central tenet of our idea was the belief that earthquakes

themselves do not pose the greatest risk:

In times of state apathy and public ignorance towards disaster preparedness, we posed a question to citizens “HOW PREPARED ARE YOU FOR EARTHQUAKES”.

We had to rally the citizens to come together to take charge of their future and protect it from the

unknown. With the aftermath of the devastating Nepal Earthquake looming in the atmosphere, we posed a question to the citizens “EARTHQUAKES :

HOW PREPARED ARE YOU”.

Prepare citizens for evacuation to minimize damage

Train masons to construct earthquake-proof buildings to mitigate future disasters

Goals

Bringing the idea to life?

Real work was the need of the hour. We had to walk the talk. We had to take it beyond the margins of the newspaper

A plan codenamed ‘INDIA PREPARES’ targeted that everybody should know what

to do when a quake strikes and architects and masons must know quake-

proof constructions.

Homes Schools

Offices

A first by a newspaper : Built a ecosystem for earthquake preparedness

Masons

Reaching out to Citizens

Engage & Train the Masons

Demonstrate Evacuation &

what to do when a quake strikes

Built a framework that connects with the ecosystem

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Reaching out to Citizens : A multimedia campaign provoked citizens to the question “How Ready Are You” ? Letters were written to school principals, offices and residential colonies

asking them to participate.

Engage and Train the Masons : In Indian mythology, Lord Vishwakarma is the presiding deity of all craftsmen and

architects. He is the divine draftsman of the whole universe, and the official builder of all gods' palaces. We created a programme

called “Modern Vishwakarma”, to train local masons by professors from IIT.

Demonstrate Evacuation : A mammoth on-ground engagement took place in the form of ‘evacuation’ exercises across schools, offices, hospitals, residential localities and villages. Earthquake alarms were sounded and mock drills were conducted under

supervision to prepare citizens for evacuation, rescue and relief operations.

The framework in action

Reaching out to Citizens

To know more Keep Reading Dainik Jagran

Through Advertising

Reaching out to Citizens

Through Editorial Content

Leaflet Distribution for Awareness

Reaching out to Citizens

Training the Masons and Certifying them to learn how to make earthquake constructions

Teaching Kids how to brace when a quake strikes

Demonstrating Evacuation

Teaching Kids how to act when there’s fire during an earthquake

Demonstrating Evacuation

Teaching Kids how to evacuate perform rescue operations when a quake strikes

Demonstrating Evacuation

Demonstrations in Offices telling people what to do in case an earthquake strikes

Demonstrating Evacuation

Workshops conducted in Residential localities to educate people on what to do when an earthquake strikes

Demonstrating Evacuation

Workshops conducted in Villages to educate people on what to do when an earthquake strikes

Demonstrating Evacuation

Campaign Response

Campaign across 4 districts – Bareilly, Badaun, Shahjahanpur, Pilibhit

35,000 students across 125 schools participated in evacuation drills

6000 people from 50 manufacturing units, 30 Government offices and 20 hospitals participated in the evacuation drills.

Over 80,000 people from urban areas participated in the drills.

38000 people from across 240 villages participated in evacuation drills

100 masons were trained and given “Adhunik Vishwakarma” certificates

24 professors from IIT Roorkee (Architecture, Civil Engineering and Disaster Management Departments) assisted by 30 student volunteers, conducted training sessions for masons

1,00,000 people attended 1000+ workshops conducted on earthquake preparedness briefing

70 Pages editorial content written in Dainik Jagran on the campaign

Campaign Impact

We presented the details of our campaign to the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh State. After this, the issue of Earthquake Preparedness was discussed in the State Legislature. The Disaster Management Dept has been asked to also begin work on similar lines and train and help the entire state be prepared for disaster. This was a big victory for the campaign.

Concluding with the words of Wasim Barelvi, the city’s famous poet :

“He knows how to wake you up in a thousand ways God does not always come knocking at your door”