Disaster Management: NDRF moves to train youth volunteers from Northeast

GUWAHATI: As a part of the 100-day agenda of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the NYKS (Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan) in collaboration with NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) is going to train a force of youth volunteers associated with the ‘Youth Clubs’ so that they can play a pivotal role in immediate response to any disaster. It is proposed to establish an institutional mechanism for organized and structured engagement of NYKS by creating block-level ‘Disaster Response Teams of Volunteers’ as first responders in the hazard-prone districts. Altogether 450 volunteers of Dhubri district in Assam, 300 from Tripura, 300 from Meghalaya and 60 volunteers from Mizoram will be trained up to March 2020 by the 1st Battalion NDRF Guwahati, Assam.

Meanwhile, a team of qualified instructors of the 1ST Battalion National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) located here is carrying out a six-day training programme on ‘Disaster Management’ for 59 volunteers (sixth batch) of NYKS from November 18 to 23 at Patgaon here. The training is being carried out under the supervision of NDRF Director General SN Pradhan, stated a release.

Altogether 212 NYKS volunteers have been already trained in five batches by the 1st Battalion NDRF, Guwahati. The subjects covered during the training are Medical First Responder, collapsed structure search and rescue, rope rescue, water rescue, fire fighting and on-site management of disasters among others.

RS Gill, Commandant, 1st Battalion NDRF said, “Reducing losses through disaster response training initiatives are targeted at developing expert and accountable disaster responders which is our top priority for disaster risk reduction with integrated development milestones in disaster management.”

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