ABSTRACT
In this article, we see that as part of the Response phase of the Disaster Management Cycle, strenghtening capacity for bulding resilience to disasters, is a critical aspect, yet it has been neglected by our disaster planners. What is true for the Indian society, is that “a culture of safety”, is yet to become a part of our lives, and we’re still reacting to disasters and not preparing for them, especially in our nurseries of education-the schools & colleges-where neither majority of the students, nor teachers are aware of the basics of disasters, forget about how to tackle them ! So, Section 1 focuses on the ‘lack of safety culture’ wrt to Disaster Risk Reduction(DRR) techniques.
Next, in Section 2, we see the role of education in creating awareness of disaster risks, and therafter, how to impart this in its basic form in schools and colleges. Here we shall see the need for this education at 3 levels, the elementary knowledge for middle school, basic and advanced disaster skill sets for senior school students and then the higher skill sets for college level students, in the form of an Integrated Disaster Managemnt Program(IDMP)-that discusses every aspect of disasters. This (IDMP) could also be duplicated across the spectrum to train teachers/healthcare workers/civil service probationers /municipal workers/Police & allied services/CAPFs & the Armed Forces-all involved in the practise of DM-which brings forth another aspect-how to train the trainers-this is touched upon here.
Continuing the focus on basic education in disaster managemnt, in Section 3, we analyse the role of education in disaster prevention & preparedness. Herein, we analyse, how the common man will need to be educated, then the vulnerable communities (especially women & children), and then study a suggested pilot program (National School Safety Program), to also include the principles, values & parameters of a school based preparedness module..
To conclude, we see how the PM’s 10 Point Program of 2016 on DRR, can help significantly in saving lives. We also see, how to guage the success or reach of any training program-through a set of monitoring & evaluating indicators/processes. The challenges being multi-fold, for a country as vast & diverse as India, the article then lists out some recommendations towards making disaster education & training effective & implementable, for a resilent and resul-oriented DRR in our country.
