India’s geological and climatic profile — 59 percent of landmass vulnerable to earthquakes, 440 million hectares prone to floods, 5,700 kilo-metres of seashore susceptible to cyclones and tsunami, and 68 percent to drought — gives General (Retd.) N.C. Vij many sleepless nights. But one of those sleepless nights spawned an idea which he is taking pains to put to use — infiltrate the basics and best practices of the newly-emerging science of disaster management into school curriculums. “We are in talks with the Union HRD ministry to incorporate disaster management principles and basics in all professional courses and school texts. The ministry has agreed in principle and hopefully within the next couple of years the subject will be part of curricula. CBSE has already adopted it; institutions under the agriculture ministry are also incorporating it in their syllabus,” says Gen. Vij, a former armed forces chief (2002-2005), and currently chairman of the Delhi-based National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
During his long and distinguished career in the Indian Army, which began after he graduated from the NationalDefenceAcademy in 1962, Vij acquired critical experience of keeping isolated troops in remote areas well supplied. Army logistics apart, he acquired specialist experience while heading the Indian Army’s rescue and relief operations during Orissa’s destructive cyclone of 1999, Bhuj’s ravaging earthquake of 2001, and as Army chief during the devastating tsunami of 2004. “In this country, we are always con-fronted with the challenges of managing floods, cyclones and earthquakes. The loss inflicted upon the economy is huge — ranging from 4-7 percent of GDP. Therefore, policy interventions, laws and their implementation backed by awareness campaigns are needed simultaneously,” explains Vij, recipient of the Param Vashist Seva, Uttam Yudh Seva and Ati Vashist Seva medals who experienced frontline action in all the four wars with external enemies that India has fought since 1947.
Vij’s visionary plan commits all schools to study disaster management, for which a considerable volume of curriculum content has been prepared, sourced and accumulated by NDMA. Guidelines for absorbing it into school and college curriculums are also ready. “One of our important initiatives is to raise disaster management audits to the level of pollution audits for all new constructions and establishments. Once this is achieved uniformly countrywide, people will realise how crucial it is,” says the 1999 Kargil war strategist and hero.
For starters, NDMA will initiate a massive Rs.1,500 crore cyclone mitigation project which will build cyclone shelters in coastal states, and create infrastructure to lessen the impact of natural and/or man-made disasters. Simultaneously a programme has been designed to train over 100,000 architects, civil engineers and masons countrywide on safety practices. “A school safety programme will be part of this disaster mitigation project. Zero tolerance to loss of life and property because of natural disasters is the long term goal, but the process of attaining it has begun,” says Vij.
Wind in your sails!
Autar Nehru (Delhi)