Workshop on review & documentation of Aapda Mitra Scheme in Guwahati city
National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in collaboration with the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA)
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), in collaboration with the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), is organizing a workshop on "Mid-Term Review & Documentation of Best Practices of Aapda Mitra Scheme" at Guwahati on 8th and 9th of December, 2022.
The inaugural ceremony of the workshop was organised today in the presence of Jogen Mohan, State Minister of Revenue & DM Department, Rajendra Singh, member, NDMA; Dr AK Bhutani, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Assam; Biswaranjan Samal, Additional Chief Secretary, Government of Assam; Ravinesh Kumar, Financial Advisor, NDMA; Kunal Satyarthi, Joint Secretary, NDMA; Gyanendra D Tripathi, Chief Executive Officer, ASDMA, other dignitaries from the State Authority and representatives from State Disaster Management Authorities (SDMA) of the country.
The workshop will provide an opportunity for the project states/UTs to share their experiences, and challenges in the implementation of the scheme and identify the gaps to make the mid-course correction for proper implementation of the Scheme.
A total of 31 states and union territories have participated in the workshop which includes Assam, West Bengal, Nagaland, Uttar Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Meghalaya, Pudducherry, Karanataka, Chandigarh, Andaman & Nicobar, Kerala, Punjab, Goa, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Orissa, Ladakh, New Delhi, Haryana, Daman & Dew and Bihar.
NDMA implemented a pilot project "Aapda Mitra" in 25 states/UTs covering 30 districts, targeting a pool of 6,000 community volunteers. As of date, 35 states/UTs have signed the MoU for implementation of this programme. A total of 21457 volunteers have been trained from 22 States/UTs. In Assam across 16 districts, 2105 volunteers have been trained so far and 1795 volunteers are yet to be trained. Based on the feedback from the state/UTs and the vision 2024 of the Government of India, NDMA, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the Government of India is Up-scaling the "Aapda Mitra Scheme" in order to train one lakh volunteers in 350 districts prone to landslide, cyclone, earthquake and flood. This scheme will be operational by 31st March 2023, which aims to train volunteers with skills to respond to their communities' immediate needs in the aftermath of a disaster.
Being at the forefront, communities need to be capacitated to respond to threats themselves. It is for this reason in the 7th Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction (AMCDRR) in November 2016, Prime Minister proposed a 10-point Agenda for DRR that covered issues, tools and approaches to address the critical challenges in achieving sustainable development objectives, focusing on local 'disaster management system', academic capacity strengthening and harnessing technological advances. Following this 'Aapda Mitra Scheme' was launched to introduce the concept of a 'Local Disaster Management System' within the community. The impact of trained volunteers in disaster response can be tremendous, as the extent of damage in terms of economic and human loss is greatly influenced by the initial response to a disaster.
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