Natural disasters occur all over the world and in India it is also have a devastating trend. Disasters like floods, cyclones and earthquakes are utterly devastating for people’s lives and the environments in which we live. Although natural disasters are caused by nature and there is nothing that we can do to prevent them happening, there are many different natural causes that lead to natural disasters, and being aware of these causes enables us to be better prepared when such disasters do arrive.
In 2014-2015, the Community Based Training (CBT) programs of KGVS involved in the backdrop of vulnerability of communities socially as well as physically to natural disasters. The natural disasters made the communities vulnerable, both socially as well as physically. Natural disasters occur periodically with varying intensities rendering the communities totally unprepared to meet such contingencies. Associated with the natural disasters are poverty and disproportionate increase in the number of unemployed, semi employed and underemployed among the rural people vis-à-vis the existing productive resource base of the society. Employment is a critical economic & social issue for these people, more so in the context of a mono-rural economy predominantly based on agriculture, who for economic and social security migrate heavily to the urban, commercial and industrial centres. The cycle of natural disasters affected the very productive base of the communities in the targeted areas. The objectives of the CBT program of KGVS was to promote disaster preparedness of the communities through capability formation and capacity building of the human resource potential to develop the required knowledge, skills and awareness to meet various contingencies within a minimum possible response time- before, during and after natural disasters.
In 2017-18, training programs were frequently organized by KGVS under the CBT program in Madhubani, Patna and Katihar districts in Bihar covering different community groups to develop required knowledge, skills and awareness about disaster management.