Prevention efforts need focus in disaster management: Kiren Rijiju

NEW DELHI: Voicing concern over the huge damage to lives and economy inflicted due to disasters in the country, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju today asked researchers and business organisations to join government's initiatives on disaster preparedness and management.

"I cannot say we are lagging behind in our initiatives for disaster management but considering the size of India, it is unfortunate that no country has such high record of deaths due to disaster as India has," the MoS for Home Affairs said while addressing the students at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

"According to a World Bank Report, 2 per cent of the GDP is lost due to disasters and at a time when India is striving to lift its economic growth from 7.2 per cent to 9 per cent, we would have achieved it if there were no disasters ," he added.

Rijiju was here to inaugurate the newly established 'Centre for Excellence in Disaster Research' at JNU.

"Though we keep on talking about how global warming and climate change are contributing to the disasters, in reality the way human civilisation is progressing, the way we are expanding too fast, we are bound to face disasters. With the kind of lifestyle we have, we must be prepared to face calamities," he said.

"It is not enough to prepare ourselves for the rescue, relief operations and rehabilitation, we must go beyond and prevent the disasters and that is where research in the area gains importance," he added.

The Minister said that government was taking several measures and initiatives to enhance the disaster preparedness, but participation of business community and researchers is very important.

"When a disaster strikes one cannot depend only on government funding, hence we have appealed that business organisations should come forward. At a recent meeting, few of them have been forthcoming in being stakeholders in the process," he said.

The university had last month signed an MoU with the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM) for establishing a Centre for Excellence in Disaster Research and Resilience Building.

According to the MoU, NIDM will be providing financial assistance amounting to Rs 4.14 crore to JNU over a three- year period from 2015-16 to 2017-18 to start MPhil and PhD programmes in disaster management for the first time in India.

The activities undertaken at the centre will include building community resilience through better preparedness, legal and governance reforms and enhanced capacity for early detection and warning systems.

It will also deal "in absorption of indigenous wisdom in administrative systems, resonating vulnerabilities of various kinds, remote sensing and GIS (Geographical Information System)-based mitigation efforts and environmental capacity enhancement of local governance," JNU Vice Chancellor SK Sopory said.