Patna, Sept. 14: Disaster management minister Renu Kushwaha today said disaster management should be included as a subject in the curriculum of primary schools.
While addressing a workshop on “Initiating UNDP DRR programme”, organised by Bihar State Disaster Management Authority, Kushwaha also said including the subject in the curriculum would make children ready and prepare them to deal with any kind of eventuality.
“On the lines of NCC training, children should be taught disaster management as a subject at the primary school-level. The state disaster management authority must prepare a proposal in this regard and submit it to the chief minister,” Kushwaha said.
The workshop was also attended by the authority’s vice-president Anil Kumar Sinha and two members, former director-general of police Shivchandra Jha and A.S. Arya, an earthquake engineer at IIT-Roorkee. A host of officials from the disaster management department also attended the meet.
The speakers at the workshop dwelt at length on how to reduce risks involved in disaster related incidents besides making people aware of all kinds of eventualities. While keeping this aspect in mind, the DRR programme, in association with the Union home ministry and UNDP, has been started in the three districts of Patna, Sitamarhi and Madhubani on a pilot project basis.
Taking a cue from Japan, where everyone is trained to deal with any disaster, Kushwaha said: “We must try to make people aware and sensitise them, besides giving them proper training to protect themselves in case of any eventuality.”
Coming down heavily on the officials, especially on district collectors for not holding meetings of district disaster management authority, she exhorted the officials to reform their attitude and take up the work of disaster management. Kushwaha said: “Though science has made progress, the fact remains that disaster related incidents have increased in the past few years. The message of how to mitigate the risk of disaster should be spread amongst everyone in the state.”
