Since the beginning of 2nd week of March 2020, the entire UT of Jammu &Kashmir was locked down yet again but this time because of the COVID-19 disease caused by the deadly Corona Virus. The moment the first case of Corona Virus was detected in Kashmir in March 2020, the risk to people, especially children became imminent. The government authorities imposed a strict lockdown in the entire UT of Jammu & Kashmir, resulting in closure of all offices, business, transport and this included colleges, schools and universities too which had just opened after a prolonged winter vacations and post August 2019 situation in the valley. Jammu & Kashmir has a history of natural disasters along with protracted prevalence of insecure situation due to ongoing civil strife and cross border shelling etc. Owing to its peculiar topography, rugged terrain, extreme weather conditions and underdeveloped economy, the Union Territory has suffered a lot on account of natural disasters. Hazards such as earthquakes, floods, fires, droughts, avalanches and landslides often convert into disasters leading to loss of human lives as well as public and private property. In the recent past alone, the earthquake in 2005 and floods in 2014 disrupted lives in the State, followed by civil unrest in 2016 and thereafter in 2019. Children being the most vulnerable, bear the brunt of these occurrences. More recently, after the prolonged shutdown following the abrogation of Article 370 in 2019, children missed out on over seven months of schooling, and had just begun to resume when the COVID-19 lockdown was imposed to curb the spread
Safe School Programme
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