The mid-July fire tragedy in the obscure town of Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) which charred 93 boys and girls aged between six and ten years to death has seared the conscience of the nation. Out of the ashes of this unprecedented man-made tragedy has sprung the hope that the issue of appalling conditions in India’s schools will be addressed and rectified. Dilip Thakore reports 

The dramatis personae — tender young children doing as they were told — could well transform a raw tragedy into a defining moment in the nation’s history. The July 16 fire at the Sri Krishna/ Saraswathi English Medium School in the obscure town of Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) which charred 93 boys and girls aged between six and ten years to death, has seared the conscience of the nation. Yet out of the ashes of this unprecedented man-made tragedy which snuffed out the lives of the hapless children of Kumbakonam (pop. 140,000) has sprung the hope that the issue of the appalling conditions in which the great majority of the nation’s children wage a daily struggle to acquire modest education, will at long last be addressed and rectified.

More than a month after the disaster, there is confusion about the actual sequence of events which culminated in the holocaust on that fateful day. A reconstruction of conflicting media reports suggests that the fire originated in the thatched-roof open-air kitchen of the Saraswathi English Medium School on the ground floor of the three storied school building which also housed the Tamil medium Sri Krishna primary and secondary schools with a total enrollment of 870 students instructed by 24 teachers, on the upper floors. The better investigated media reports indicate that while the mid-day meal of the school children was being cooked in the make-shift, open-air kitchen on the ground floor, its thatched roof caught fire which spread upwards into the upper floors of the building, access to which was by narrow staircases in the front and rear of the functional building crammed with 40 students per classroom.

Inevitably, the rear staircase down which the children could have escaped was barred by a grill locked the night before and unopened in the morning as per custom. Unforgivably, while the fire raged upward, the schools’ teachers asked the children on the upper floors to remain seated while they presumably attempted to find the keys to unlock the gate of the rear staircase. When they failed to find the keys in time, the teachers reportedly fled the scene, leaving the children to their fate. While the great majority of the children (whose number on the upper floors housing the Sri Krishna School had swelled on the day as July 16 was inspection day and higher numbers in the Tamil medium school would result in larger government grants) escaped down the front staircase, the youngest children who made for the rear entrance were found charred to death against the locked grill, plunging a large number of poor households (whose children enroll in non-English medium schools) in Kumbakonam into a lifetime of grief and despair.

As is customary, the promoter and several teachers of the school have been arrested and an enquiry has been ordered by the state government. Meanwhile in typical government-style ex post facto over-reaction, thatched roofs in all schools across Tamil Nadu have been ordered to be pulled down and replaced with those of unspecified non-inflammable materials. Yet given the open complicity of state government officials in routinely turning a blind eye to the numerous violations of safety regulations in private and government schools, it is unlikely that the report of the enquiry commission will make any worthwhile suggestions which will be heeded by the cash-strapped Tamil Nadu (or any other state) government. In a country in which one-fifth of 800,000 government schools are multi-grade single teacher institutions, 20 percent don’t have proper buildings, 58 percent don’t provide drinking water and 70 percent lack sanitation and toilet facilities, the commission’s anticipated recommendation for larger outlays for students’ safety is likely to fall on unresponsive ears.

Nevertheless the July 16 tragedy in Kumbakonam has impacted the issue of safety in education institutions — and the safety of children in general — upon socially responsible leaders within Indian academia. “I am afraid that the great majority of schools in India do not have adequate safety systems. Most of them are not sufficiently organised or equipped to meet calamities, leaving children at great risk. In CISCE (Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations) we accord great importance to affiliated school managements observing strict safety norms. I have recently instructed our schools to undertake safety audits and put teachers and children through drills and dry runs at least once a month to teach them how to handle emergencies. Moreover we have recently introduced compulsory safety norms which will need to be put in place prior to affiliation of new schools. Our inspectors will conduct a safety audit of applicant schools and only after we receive a satisfactory report will the school be granted provisional affiliation. Safety norms in schools must be child-centred as children are the most vulnerable stakeholders in school communities,” says Francis Fanthome secretary-general of the Delhi-based CISCE which has 1,286 of the country’s most highly rated schools affiliated with the council.

Perhaps because most of India’s blue-chip boarding schools including Doon, Mayo, St. Paul’s Darjeeling and Bishop Cotton Shimla and Bangalore among others are affiliated with it, students’ safety is a serious issue within CISCE. In August 2002 —well before the Kumbakonam catastrophe impacted the issue upon the national consciousness — the council suo motopublished a well conceptualised and child-friendly School Safety Manual — A Practical Reference Guide in collaboration with the Indian subsidiary of the US-based chemical major E.I. Dupont which was sent to all CISCE affiliated schools. Quite evidently with the progeny of the country’s rich and famous enrolled in affiliated schools, there’s a healthy awareness within the council that the neglect of safety issues is a high-risk failure.

Ditto in the inner and generally less accessible councils of the Union government promoted, Delhi-based, Central Board of Secondary Examinations (CBSE) — India’s largest school-leaving examinations board which has over 7,000 upscale schools including 926 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 506 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (see EW cover story of last month), apart from a sizeable number of highly fancied private sector schools such as the five National Public Schools, Bangalore, and Lawrence School, Lovedale among others affiliated with it. On July 26 — ten days after the Kumbakonam fire tragedy, G. Balasubramaniam, director (academic) of CBSE issued a circular/ questionnaire (28/2004) mailed to the heads of all affiliated schools.

“It is important that the (sic) schools should own moral responsibility for safe housing of students during the period of their stay in the school. It is said that accidents do not happen, they are caused. Advanced planning, effective implementation strategies, development of right attitude for safety, coordination and cooperation with agencies working in this area are important for ensuring safety in schools,” says the preamble of the circular which advises the managements of its 7,050 affiliated schools to conduct immediate safety audits and implement several “broad preventive measures”.

Among the safety measures recommended by CBSE: fire safety management; structural i.e building safety; earthquake, flood/ cyclone, landslides and stampede management; industrial safety hazards; electrical safety; danger from on-going construction work; and playground, water, laboratory, and transport management safety. “The above questionnaire needs to be answered by each and every school. The heads of institutions would (sic) discuss these issues in the school managements and take appropriate steps in this regard,” warns the poorly drafted but important CBSE circular.

A modicum of awareness of safety management processes and procedures is expected of syllabus prescription and examination boards such as CISCE and CBSE which have affiliated India’s top 7,500 schools, levying tuition and other fees which are unaffordable by the overwhelming majority of the population. The real problem is further down the pecking order in the 800,000 plus primary and secondaries such as the Sri Krishna and Saraswathi English Medium, affiliated to the 27 state examination boards across the country. In these state and local government schools where blackboards, desks, chairs, drinking water and toilets are rarities and teacher absenteeism is the rule rather than the exception, fire extinguishers, safety manuals and drills are classified as luxuries designed for effete urbanites.

“The plain truth is that within the teachers’ community in general and in government schools in particular, there is very little awareness of safety rules and regulations. Unfortunately the majority of teachers won’t recognise a fire extinguisher if they saw it, let alone know how to use it. The frightening reality is that most schools in the country are in far worse condition than the Sri Krishna School in Kumbakonam. This is because unlike the social philosophy of western countries, in India the state does not consider the nation’s children its property — to be cared for and educated,” laments R. Govinda who has a doctorate in education from Baroda University and is currently a senior fellow at the National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA), New Delhi.

Dr. Shekhar Seshadri an alumnus of Delhi University and Bangalore’s highly rated National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) and currently additional professor of child psychiatry at NIMHANS, has a socio-psychological explanation for the low priority accorded to children’s safety in Indian society. “It wouldn’t be accurate to say that Indians are more cruel to children than people in other, especially industrial societies. A more rational explanation is that for several decades the education system has stopped teaching pro-social behaviour in schools and colleges. The consequence is that respect for the rights of others and of children in particular, is not part of the national consciousness. This education lacuna is compounded by the paternalistic attitude of government at all levels, which over the past five decades has created a society of perpetual shortages in welfare and civic amenities. The result is a hell-for-leather me-first attitude which is pervasive in Indian society. In such a social order it’s hardly surprising that the right of all children to a quality education in safe and secure environments is a low national priority. Unfortunately post-independence India has inherited the worst aspects of socialism — authoritarian paternalism of government without its welfare-state benefits,” says Seshadri.

A typical example of state neglect of childrens’ right to quality education is the Corporation Higher Secondary School (estb.1967) in Virugambakkam, a suburb of the bustling city of Chennai, the administrative capital of Tamil Nadu (pop.62.1 million), widely regarded as the most educationally advanced state of the Indian Union. Comments Hemalatha Raghupathi, EducationWorld’s Chennai correspondent who visited this school which has 1,607 students and 35 teachers on its muster rolls: “The continuous noise and chaos which characterise this local government school located in a narrow garbage-strewn street beyond a crowded marketplace makes conversation almost impossible. The noise is from the incessant chatter of children seated on every available inch of space in the school — all over the muddy ground near the school gate; on the floor in narrow corridors leading into jam-packed classrooms on the ground, first and second floors and even on the staircase winding to the upper floors. The two-storey school building has asbestos roofs which are a serious health hazard; there is just one — admittedly wide — staircase for children to go up and down and the classrooms are dark, dirty and without ventilation. There are no library or lab facilities except a small unit contributed by the local Rotary Club.”

According to M. Kandaswamy headmaster of the school, repeated requests to the state government to expand and upgrade the school premises have proved futile. “We don’t run the risk of a fire in the school as we don’t have thatched roofs over the classrooms or in the noon meal kitchen. We have just one staircase to the upper floors but it is wide enough for children to descend quickly in case of an emergency. We don’t have fire extinguishers or a fire escape but we have adequate water supply. The school doesn’t have watchmen or security personnel either but to date we have not had a major security problem,” says Kandaswamy.

However according to assistant headmistress R. Mangalam, during a recent hoax bomb scare the school’s teachers experienced great difficulty in shepherding children down its single staircase. “There was a stampede with children falling over each other. It was with great effort that we managed to get them safely out of the school compound which was blocked by panic-stricken parents who had entered the premises,” recalls Mangalam.

Across peninsular India in Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra — India’s most industrialised state which accounts for over 25 percent of the country’s manufacturing output — the condition of schools run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (reportedly India’s richest municipal government) isn’t any better. EducationWorld’s Mumbai-based correspondent Gaver Chatterjee visited a BMC school in Colaba sited next to a fire station. “This class V-X BMC school provides an education of sorts to a massive number of 1,200 students per shift which translates into over 60 children per class in the morning and afternoon shifts. Children have to make their own way to and from school through heavy traffic mostly on foot and are usually unaccompanied by adults. The building has three floors with 27 rooms, a dusty — though wide — staircase and two large entrances, one of which remains locked all the time. The school is without a principal or vice principal both of whom have recently retired… there were no fire extinguishers anywhere in sight,” reports Chatterjee.

According to S.S. Ansari the assistant head of the school interviewed by Chatterjee, the BMC Colaba School is better equipped in terms of safety systems than most corporation schools in the commercial capital of the country. “True we don’t have any fire extinguishers in this school. But then we are in the same lane as the fire station so we don’t really need them. Moreover there are two large entrances through which our students can exit quickly,” Ansari told Chatterjee who gives the school’s safety systems a rating of four on a scale of ten.

On the other hand in the private sector CISCE-affiliated G.D. Somani Memorial School situated in the upscale Cuffe Parade residential enclave of south Mumbai, hardly a mile away as the crow flies from the BMC Colaba School, top priority is accorded to the safety of its 1,500 students. The seven-storey school building boasts two elevators and three wide staircases and each floor is equipped with three medium-sized fire extinguishers. Three security guards man the school gates throughout the day and nobody is permitted to enter the premises without a pass from the reception desk. “All our maintenance staff and security personnel are trained to operate our fire-fighting equipment and students are put through a fire drill annually. Moreover we pay considerable attention to children’s physical and transport security issues,” says M.P. Sharma, the school principal who has a string of degrees from Bombay University including a diploma in education administration.

A similar black and white contrast between private and government schools is evident across the breadth of the subcontinent in Kolkata where despite Marxist rule for almost three decades, the professedly pro-poor comrades of the Left parties have conspicuously failed to raise standards of public education.EducationWorld’s Amrita Mondal visited the Sarkari Bal Vidyalaya, a government-run school in the Tangra slums of east Kolkata and filed this dispatch: “The six classrooms are crammed with almost 200 children taught by ten teachers. There are no fire extinguishing devices in the school, not even the old-fashioned red pails of sand. When asked about fire safety precautions, the head mistress Anjali Sarkar replied with some bafflement that she’s never thought about such ashubho (unlucky) misfortunes. “On your way here you might have noticed a pond. We can always fetch water from the pond in case of a fire,’ she said. The pond is situated at a distance of 80 metres and is mostly dry in summer,” writes Mondal.

In sharp contrast, safety and fire hazard precautions at the (B.M) Birla-promoted Modern High School for Girls, Kolkata (estb.1952) which has 2,000 girl students on its muster roll are exemplary, according to Mondal who awards the school a perfect 10 safety award score. There are three staircases with three exits in the three-storeyed building, all leading out into a lawn. The school building is equipped with fire extinguishers at strategic points. However after the Kumbakonam tragedy, principal Devi Kar has ordered a double-check of the equipment and updated safety management systems of the school. “It is important for the teachers’ community to learn the lessons of the Kumbakonam tragedy. In our school this great misfortune has made us even more conscious of the importance of fire prevention measures. We have installed 19 portable fire extinguishers in the school including eight in our school buses. Moreover additional fire extinguishers have been installed at strategic points across the campus, including science laboratories and pantry rooms,” says Kar.

Likewise the safety prevention measures in the Apeejay School, Noida (estb.1981) set in a 16-acre campus on the outskirts of Delhi are exemplary. “This CBSE-affiliated school has over 3,000 students who study in three earthquake resistant buildings,” writes EducationWorld’s Delhi-based assistant editor Neeta Lal who visited its campus recently. “The school has installed three types of fire extinguishers — water, foam and gas-based — 27 in all. Stock and preparedness evaluation of the fire-fighting equipment is done every month. The school also conducts a fire-safety drill every August and prides itself on evacuating all buildings within ten minutes,” reports Lal.

A particularly notable feature of the Apeejay School is that its buildings are designed to facilitate its 28 physically challenged students. One exit of the three in every building is customised to facilitate quick exit of wheelchairs. “Though we have taken safety precautions which are unmatched by any other school across the country, there is no end to student safety measures we can devise. Safety management is a continuously evolving process,” says Rajesh Hassija principal of the school.

Box 1

School safety audit basics

In collaboration with e.i. Dupont ltd, the Delhi-based Council of Indian School Certificate Examination (CISCE) presciently published a School Safety Manual — A Practical Reference Guide in 2002. The 104-page illustrated four colour manual provides a detailed safety guide to school managements. An adapted summary of the chapter ‘Conducting safety audits’ is given below:

Why should a school conduct safety audits? Setting standards for school safety is not enough. Schools need to ensure that the same are enforced. Awareness of “the right thing to do” may not always result in desired behaviour. Habits die hard and it might be a while before people start putting the safety procedures and precautions into practice. Even if safety procedures are being followed, they may be followed only partially or even wrongly. This is where a safety audit becomes essential. A safety audit, in simple words, means an assessment of the extent to which the stipulated safety procedures for a particular area/ task are being followed.

Methods of conducting a safety audit. One of the commonly used methods of auditing is observation. Observation usually consists of detailed notation of behaviour or actions of people and contexts under which such behaviour or events occur. There are many ways in which observations may be conducted. The auditor/ auditing team may make observations covertly, for example, by simply “being around” in the games field and taking note of the safety procedures followed or neglected.

Who should be involved in conducting a safety audit? Persons both from within the school as well as outside can conduct a safety audit. However, it is important that the people involved in the audit have adequate knowledge of the safety rules and regulations prescribed for the particular task/ activity/ area that they are going to audit. The manner and the attitude of the auditor/s is equally important. An auditor needs to be diplomatic, unbiased and articulate. He/ she should not accept anything at face value, but enquire and probe further to identify the root of the problem.

Aspects to be observed while conducting a safety audit. The auditing exercise can be more meaningful if the auditing team has a clear idea as to which aspects are to be observed. Broadly the observation categories in a chemistry laboratory for example, can be classified as actions/ behaviours/ positions of people; potential hazards; personal protective equipment; tools/ equipment/ apparatus; orderliness and procedures.

Actions/ behaviours/ positions of people. For example  The teacher observes safety precautions herself while demonstrating experiments – Students are disciplined. There is no running or shouting or sudden movement in the laboratory

Potential hazards. – Hazardous chemicals left unlocked – Sharp objects such as glass, broken bottles left unattended -Furniture with sharp edges, splinters, damaged legs, protruding nails – Improper installation of electrical equipment

Personal protective equipment. – Students/ teacher should wear laboratory coats – Safety goggles should be used if the procedure requires

Tools/ equipment/ apparatus. Check if: – There is adequate equipment — test tubes, holders, chemicals etc at each work station – There is a fire extinguisher in the laboratory – A fully equipped first aid kit is present – Defects in apparatus are reported immediately and prompt action is taken

Orderliness. – Exits must be clear, both inside and outside – Printed warnings and cautions must be displayed in proper places

Procedures during an experiment. For instance ensure that – All chemicals are handled by a spatula – Used chemicals are disposed properly

After class/ before school ends for the day. Check: – Are taps and switches turned off? – Do the laboratory staff / teacher lock the lab securely?

Source: School Safety Manual — A Practical Reference Guide, CISCE, Delhi (2002)

Refreshingly in the National Capital Region, i.e Delhi, even in government-managed schools there seems to be a healthy awareness of the importance of safety management. The Government Senior Secondary School, Lodhi Road (estb.1958) which has 780 including 510 girl students on its rolls, is equipped with ten fire extinguishers for its three-storeyed building. In addition the school’s five large water tanks are also fitted with hosepipes and kept ready for fire emergencies. The building though old (1960), is well-designed with two exits on each floor and two separate gates on its grounds, reports Lal.

According to the school’s principal V. K.Mishra, an inspection of all electrical switch points is conducted every month by a professional electrician. “This is a practice proposed by the school’s Vidyalaya Kalyan Samiti, a dedicated welfare committee comprising two students, a nominee of our MLA, a local NGO and two nominees of local resident welfare associations,” acknowledges Mishra. “Moreover we conduct fire and emergency drills regularly and the school has recently appointed a professional counsellor who instructs students on safety management including fire prevention, commuting hazards and interaction with strangers,” says Mishra.

However the detailed safety management processes introduced in the Lodhi Road Government Senior Secondary which should serve as a model to all government schools across the country are the exception rather than the rule in India’s huge school system comprising an estimated 830,000 primary and 75,000 secondary schools of which 90 percent are run by state and local governments. According to EW’s Lucknow-based correspondent Vidya Pandit, a July 27 circular issued to 926 government and private schools in the city by the municipal corporation to compulsorily attend a fire safety workshop following the Kumbakonam tragedy, failed to prompt the presence of even one school principal or senior official of the state government’s education department.

Comments Lucknow’s chief fire officer J.K. Singh: “School managements are wholly oblivious of fire safety norms and believe that it’s sufficient to merely install fire extinguishers and sand pails. The fact is that their staff are never trained to use extinguishers or to manage emergencies. Yet these managements exert tremendous pressure on us to issue no-objection certificates. We intend to conduct safety workshops periodically despite the poor response to our July 27 circular. School managements should appreciate that the idea behind the workshops is to equip school principals and managers with the basic skills to review and upgrade safety management procedures. Their responsibility is not merely to douse flames but to save innocent lives.”

The national survey of school safety systems and academic and official attitudes towards the subject conducted by EducationWorld correspondents clearly indicates that if education institutions have become hazard traps endangering the lives of vulnerable children as horrifyingly manifested by the Kumbakonam fire tragedy, the prime villains are state and local government officials who fail and neglect to enforce laws and regulations enacted to protect students.

Box 2

Kumbakonam tragedy reactions

After the Kumbakonam tragedy, we are implementing safeguards against all accidents. The fire fighting equipment is placed in strategic positions and teachers are trained to handle it in case of an emergency – Nandini Shukla, principal, Kerala Samajam Model School, Jamshedpur

Our fire fighting equipment is in working condition; teachers are trained to handle a possible disaster/ calamity and provide first aid. Inflammable materials i.e gas, kerosene, diesel, petrol etc are kept away from children. Children in classes VIII to X are adequately informed and trained about their role in fire disasters, particularly how to aid and assist younger children – Fr. Sebastian Vettickal, principal, De Paul School, Vishakapatnam

Fire extinguishers have been placed in laboratories, office rooms and on every floor. All staff members have been trained in handling them and adequate exit routes are available in our building. Gas cylinders and other inflammable items are kept away from the reach of children. Training about first aid and how to handle emergencies has been given to staff and students – Shanthala Ravishanker, principal, Auden Institute of Education, Bangalore

In the Heritage School we have taken enough precautions and ensured the safety of our students, as well as our school building against fire hazards. We have fire fighting equipment in working condition. We practise fire drills with children and teachers. Our kitchen is away from the main school building and we have installed fire extinguishers in laboratories, libraries and other places – Ranu Dattagupta, headmistress, Heritage School, Kolkata

Our school is fully secure against emergencies. The fire fighting and fire detection systems are in working condition in auto mode. We periodically arrange fire drills with fire experts to train children, school staff, security guards, bus drivers and conductors in the use of fire fighting equipment. All staff have been trained to handle a possible disaster. Inflammable materials like gas, diesel, etc are kept away from the building. All teachers and staff have been advised of their responsibility for the safety of children – R. Williams, principal, DPS International, Delhi

Even as an official enquiry is being conducted into the Kumbakonam holocaust, it is already apparent that the Tamil Nadu state government’s education ministry officials turned a blind eye to the reckless capacity expansion of the Sri Krishna and Saraswathi English schools and the flouting of elementary safety regulations by the common management of the two schools. Moreover it should be plain as a pikestaff to any rational monitor of India’s unequal education system that the rush for admissions into fees-levying private schools such as Sri Krishna/ Saraswathi English is rooted in the cruel obstinacy of state governments across the country to deny English medium education to the children of the poor and under-privileged.

“In India we tolerate great social divisions. And this country’s education system perpetuates the divisions in Indian society by being segmented into government, private, elite etc schools. In this fragmented schools system it’s not very fashionable to raise issues concerning safety, security and comfort of the children of the poor and downtrodden. That’s why the issue of safety in government and aided schools has been neglected and will continue to be,” says Dr. P.K. Joshi, director of the Delhi-based National Institute of Education Planning and Administration (NIEPA).

However a positive fallout of the Kumbakonam fire tragedy is that its sheer pathos has sparked indignation within the academic community and society in general — even if not within the impervious government bureaucracy — about the glaring inequalities in terms of provision and care which characterise the nation’s school education system. “There definitely needs to be much greater awareness in government and society about the issue of safety management in education institutions,” says Prof. Ashima Goyal, professor of economics at Mumbai’s Indira Gandhi Institute of Research and Development. “Tragedies such as the Kumbakonam fire are not the result of lack of resources but lack of planning and government supervision. To remedy this unacceptable situation, state and local governments must take the lead and enforce safety norms, rules and regulations. In addition NGOs and the media must create wider awareness of the importance of children’s safety — the issues brought to the national attention by the Kumbakonam tragedy must not be allowed to die. And above all parents must become very vocal on issues of safety management and should push for every possible safety precaution in schools. This subject — of fire, transport, access to school buildings — should be intensively discussed in parent-teacher associations. That’s the lesson of this painful tragedy.”

That the Kumbakonam holocaust of July 16 in which 93 children in the tender age bracket of six to ten years lost their lives was a man-made rather than divinely ordained tragedy is indisputable. The original sin of failure and neglect to legislate a common school system condemns the children of the poor and disadvantaged to inferior schools and syllabuses devised by venal state governments. This inequity has been compounded by the Central government and intelligentsia turning a collective blind eye to the substandard infrastructure and classroom conditions of down market schools. The Sri Krishna and Saraswathi English schools inferno is the logical consequence of decades of neglect of the quality of education dispensed to the children of the subaltern classes.

Following the Kumbakonam disaster there’s widespread hope that the hitherto dormant conscience of India’s newly emergent, influential middle class has been sufficiently aroused to speak up in favour of a fairer deal for the children of the under-privileged who are compelled to enroll in cash and carry teaching shops because teaching and learning standards in public-financed government and aided schools are downright pathetic. If this hope proves unfounded, the innocent children of Kumbakonam will have died in vain.

With Vidya Pandit (Lucknow); Neeta Lal (Delhi); Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai); Amrita Mondal (Kolkata) & Gaver Chatterjee (Mumbai)