A systematic review of school-based disaster risk reduction strategies in India

India is a diverse country, which experiences different types of disasters in different geographical regions. To reduce the impact of such disasters, the schools need to adopt relevant Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies and equip the students with relevant disaster knowledge to face future disasters. This study presents a systematic review of research on DRR initiatives aimed at Indian school students. The second section of the paper identified the main themes and pertinent recommendations gleaned from those studies. The studies were searched from January 1, 2000, to January 31, 2024, using specific keywords related to DDR, schools, and students. 67 relevant studies, including articles, book chapters, conference papers, and theses, were finalized using PRISMA guidelines. The components of the finalized studies were analyzed based on the year of publication, type of studies, type of data analyzed, the methods used for analysis, the study areas, and the kind of disasters studied. Then, the four themes were identified for thematic analysis: (1) the need to incorporate DRR in the school curriculum (46 %), (2) the emergence of online education as a DRR strategy (27 %), (3) the impact of disasters on disadvantaged students and their mental health (16 %), and (4) the importance of safe and resilient school infrastructure (11 %). The study concluded that the implementation of DRR in Indian schools is necessary to establish a resilient education system that can withstand future disasters. It suggested sensitizing the researchers to conduct more research in this field in India along with the cooperative efforts of all stakeholders in strengthening DRR in the schools.