Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Nityanand Rai has informed that The National Policy on Disaster Management, while highlighting the role of Community Participation, has emphasized to encourage the efforts of States/Union Territories in this regard. It is further mentioned that Community plans will be dovetailed into the Panchayat, Block and District plans.
The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has implemented a Scheme of Aapda Mitra on pilot basis to train 6000 community volunteers (200 per district) in 30 flood prone districts of 25 States/UTs in disaster response with a focus on flood, so that they can respond to the community’s immediate needs in the aftermath of a disaster. More than 5500 volunteers have been trained under the pilot scheme.
Based on the success of the pilot scheme, and request from the States/UTs, Government of India has approved the Up-Scaling of Aapda Mitra Scheme, covering 350 districts prone to flood, landslide, cyclone and earthquake to train 1,00,000 community volunteers in disaster response.
Apart from this, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) conducts community awareness programmes for the capacity building of community in disaster management. In the year 2021, NDRF has trained 1380 community volunteers in disaster management.
NDRF is also conducting School Safety Programme (SSP) and imparting basic training to school children as well as teachers to evacuate themselves during an earthquake. During 2021, NDRF has conducted 81 SSPs covering 18,057 beneficiaries.
To inform, educate and to make the people aware, NDMA runs awareness generation campaigns through electronic and print media, including social media, on various disasters, from time to time. These campaigns include Do’s & Don’ts, Audio-Visual films, messages containing preparedness before, during and after disaster events.