Govt bets on psychological training to tackle disaster trauma

Kolkata: The state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department is providing psychological preparedness training to residents of disaster-prone areas to reduce degree of trauma during any emergency.

According to a senior official of the state Disaster Management and Civil Defence department, residents of an area get panicked and can hardly do anything for their own safety during any disaster. But they would at least be able to deal with a situation and reach a safe place after listening to the forecast of any disaster, if they are provided with such training.

"They become psychologically strong, considering that they know what they need to do and what not during the time of disaster. It helps a lot as one can also attempt to rescue others as well," the officer said.

Disaster Management Officers provide the training to the people residing in such areas.

The trainers show videos of different natural disasters like flood, earthquake, etc. to the residents of the coastal areas, flood-prone areas and hills.

An official of the department said the main target of the trainers providing psychological preparedness training, is to make people feel confident during the time of any emergency and not get panicked.

With improvement in the system to forecast weather, in most cases, people are well-informed in case there is any prediction of heavy storm or rainfall. Gauzing the water level, flood or flood-like situation can also be assessed.

At the same time, the means of dissemination of such forecast has also improved. Now people get information within a very short period of time. So they can take necessary precaution with some time in their hands.

This comes at a time when the state government has introduced a state-of-the-art technology that will ensure prediction of lightning and dissemination of information at least 45 minutes ahead of it striking at a particular location in any part of Bengal.