Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Nov 6: M Shashidar Reddy, Vice Chairman National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) New Delhi, termed the rescue and evacuation measures in India much better and effective than the ones recently conducted in developed countries during disasters and stressed on safety of children during any disaster that forms the most vulnerable group amongst the victims of disasters.
While addressing the faculty members, students and delegates at University of Kashmir (KU) during the inaugural function of South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Regional Training Program on Children Safety including Children with Special Needs in South Asia, organised by SAARC Disaster Management Centre, (SDMC) New Delhi in collaboration with Department of Geography Regional Development, KU.
Reddy said that the key to survival during disasters like earth-quakes, floods, cyclones and tornados lies in effective preparedness and all members of SAARC nations have to pool-in their efforts and resources to come up with multi-pronged strategy to tackle such disasters which he said are common to all the SAARC countries in terms of the vast devastation and damage they cause to the life and property of the people.
Vice Chancellor University of Kashmir Prof Talat Ahmad who was chairing the inaugural session said that the decision of SDMC and NDMA to select University of Kashmir for the training program is very encouraging and will in turn help the participants and delegates from various SAARC countries to know about the various strategies and study conducted in the area of disaster management by the researchers and academicians of KU which he said is actively involved in mapping the vulnerabilities of various social groups in the J&K region.
Speaking on the occasion Dr Muzaffar Ahmad member NDMA and a renowned public health expert, while presenting some statistics said in his remarks that South Asia is home to the largest number of children in the world and according to UNICEF’s State of World’s Children 2010, South Asia’s population of children under 18 was 614 million – nearly 28 per cent of the world’s total child population.
Presenting vote of thanks on the occasion Prof M Sultan Bhat Head Dept of Geography and Regional development KU said that the training program will be attended by a number of delegates from various SAARC countries India, Sri Lanka, Burma, Maldives, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Follow our WhatsApp channel