A national-level workshop on ‘Mainstreaming of Disaster Risk Reduction in Civil Defence Programme,’ conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Home, Mullappally Ramchandran at Dona Paula, Goa today. It was attended by the secretary (border management), A. E. Ahmad, director general, NDRF & Civil Defence, Rajiv and directors, civil defence of states and Union Territories and other dignitaries.
In his inaugural address, Ramachandran pointed out that India is highly vulnerable to natural disasters losing about two per cent of GDP on an average due to these disasters. He emphasized the need to build collaboration among stakeholders in order to reduce the impact of natural disasters by integrating disaster risk reduction measures into the development policy.
The secretary (border management), in his keynote address, emphasized the need to develop the capacities of institutions for promoting disaster management efforts systemically in all the tiers of the civil defence structure. He appealed to the stakeholders of disaster management to develop architecture and training modules to train civil defence volunteers and administrative staff and also to have a protocol to facilitate engagement among the administrations at district, state and national levels on this issue.
The deliberations during the workshop culminated in finding solutions and recommending effective steps towards mainstreaming disaster risk reduction in civil defence which would ultimately result in the efforts of dedicated civil defence volunteers to be usefully channelized towards the larger goal of disaster risk reduction.
