KOCHI: The harrowing days of last year’s flood have given untold misery to many souls. Despite the active public support, many have suffered a lot due to the lack of scientific approach in rescue operations.
Now, Kerala will be well-equipped to tackle emergency situations, thanks to the trained volunteers under ‘Aapda Mitra (friends in disaster),’ the Centre-funded programme for disaster management.
The 200-member squad selected from Kottayam by Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (KSDMA) completed training at Kerala Fire and Rescue Services Academy, Thrissur, in March. “It’s a pilot project by the National Disaster Management Authority in the most flood-prone districts across the country, listed by the agency to instruct a group of youth in scientific rescue operations and utilise their service in emergency situations. During last year’s flood, we saw many youths were unable to manage critical situations which led to numerous mishaps. As the public will be first responders in an emergency situation, training them will be an advantage to reduce casualties. Learning from these experiences, KSDMA selected the physically fit men in the age group of 18 to 40 to equip them with professional training and life-saving kits to effectively handle exigencies,” said Sathyakumar CJ, Hazard Analyst, KSDMA.
The instructors selected from the Fire and Rescue Department have undergone special training at National Civil Defence College, Nagpur, before training the volunteers. “The specially trained instructors drilled eight batches consisting of 25 volunteers each for 12 days since October 2018 to help the officials in future. They will be deployed under the fire stations in their area to help the fire and safety officials in emergency situations. As they are certified by the NDMA with identity cards, they can get into a situation at any time without bothering about legal hassles. They voluntarily went to Alappuzha during the cyclone Gaja and rescued many. In fact, we were able to send a few of these trained individuals to Tamil Nadu,” he said.
Though the first batch consists of only men, KSDMA is planning to include women in the next phases of the project. “Due to the unavailability of female trainers and other facilities at the academy, we couldn’t include any female members in the first phase. We are planning to add them in the upcoming phases of training in Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, which will commence within four months,” he said.
A step towards future
The 12-day long training focused on survival, surface water search and rescue, underwater search and rescue and casualty handling. The members were also equipped in the maintenance of rescue boats and in handling emergency medical operations. “The training was based on the NDMA syllabus of disaster management. Now, the selection process is taking place to shortlist trained members for the advanced course to be held at National Civil Defence College. They will form the state disaster response force, who will be deployed to train future batches,” said Bibin, former trainee.