Webinar on Safety of Responders
Report
In present days entire world is fighting a battle with pandemic Covid 19 and India is one of them. The Government of India has notified the pandemic as a disaster and has been responding to it on a war footing along with State Governments and UT administration to minimize the health impact due to the pandemic along with keeping economy also on course. Many other stakeholders have also joined hands with the Government in responding to this tragedy. It is imperative that such a large scale response should be well streamlined, well-coordinated, to ensure that the decisions made at the top level are followed at by different participating stakeholders systematically to ensure their own safety and also safety of those being rescued.
It is to state here that India has been under lockdown since March 25, 2020 and life has come to almost standstill. Since then all the places such as Malls Picture halls, hotels educational Institutions, marriage halls and transport had been non operational. Most of the persons got stranded where ever they were before the lockdown. This had created challenges regarding food, drinking water and financial health. Country’s economy had also slowed down and had impacted industrial and commercial health of the country. Everybody had been clueless as to how to tackle this situation. At this time when Covid 19 is threatening to increase further, India is struck with Amphan cyclone, Heat wave and Locust attack besides the Gas leak in Vishakhapatnam. Social unrest from educational sector, industrial sector might also add to the misery. Local response and NDRF had to be geared up for responding to such calamities following the protocols of covid 19. Season of natural disasters has begun and viewing the history it is going to be worsened in coming days. Since response to such emergencies is to be done with high standards which had been followed till now, safety of responders is foremost necessity.
Now that unlocking of areas has begun after almost 67 days of lockdown. People will try to come out to streets or at least out of their houses. With advent of flood, cyclone and heat wave season safety has to be of foremost importance in order to check the increase of number of covid cases and also mitigate the impact of upcoming disasters. Generally mask and hand gloves are the basic safety equipment which can be used by responders for their own safety but there are certain other areas where safety is a major concern. These areas are Relief camp, team formation, pre-positioning of ambulances and local police/ SDRF etc. These are the places which need special focus besides deployment of teams.
Fear psychosis and free movement of care providers who provide assistance to the persons with disabilities also need special attention through sensitive responders.
NIDM conducted a webinar on the topic “Safety of Responders in the light of Covid 19” on June 2, 2020. 89 participants joined this webinar. List of participants is placed at annexure 1. The key speakers of this webinar were Shri Balaji Singh, Dr. Chandrani Neogi, Shri Ashish Kumar Panda and Shri Vikram Gurjar. Shri Shekher Chaturvedi moderated this webinar.
At the outset Shri Chaturvedi welcomed the participants and explained the purpose of the webinar and why this webinar has been designed. He then invited Maj. Gen. Manoj Kumar Bindal, Executive Director of the Institute to inaugurate the webinar. Maj. Gen. Bindal welcomed the participants and the panelists and explained the background scenario of the country. He said that in the present situation the frontline workers such as Police, NDRF, SDRF, Doctors and Nurses are falling prey to Covid 19. Keeping the importance and criticality of these frontline workers, it is all the more important to have safety of them and this gives importance to this webinar. He highlighted that besides safety being followed by these responders, Covid 19 has given new dimensions to safety such as social distancing, mask and hand sanitization/ washing. These new dimensions have added to the responsibilities of the responders and hence new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have to be developed. Motivation and skill training is the need of the hour. Few protocols such as testing of responders, disinfecting the equipments being used by responders and camps etc. must be followed for safety of responders. Citing an example of Drones being used for surveillance, he stressed that use of technology can go a long way in reducing the exposure of the responders by reducing their man hours on site and thus leading to their safety. While closing his session, Maj. Gen. Bindal said that there is the need of speedy and efficiency in response, strong coordination mechanism and information management system which would lead to effective response with safety of both responders and community at large.
The next session was of Dr. Chandrani Bandyopadhyay, Assistant Professor, who shared her experiences about safety of responders. She said that quality of personal protection kits for responders and mask for survivors ensure safety of responders. She also highlighted the issue of special provisions for care providers of disabled persons, which was the difficulty during lockdown. She then said that database of disabled persons being affected by covid 19 must be prepared and maintained. She said that responders must be provided information about assistive devices of persons with disabilities and training and capacity building of inclusiveness and sensitivity towards vulnerable people.
Shri Shekher Chaturvedi highlighted that covid 19 has given new guidelines to follow for safety such as mask, senitization, hand washing and social distancing. With the new guidelines, safety of responders depends on PPE kit for responders and mask for survivors. If we include safety of survivors also then dedicated ambulance for covid suspects and dedicated space for covid suspects in relief camps, regular checkups for responders and inclusion of medical staff in every team as changes in composition are to be undertaken.
Shri Ashish Panda Consultant shared experiences about psycho-social care and safety of responders. He said that responders while performing the work of response are under constant stress of their own safety, time limitation and safety of rescued persons. This stress takes a toll on their health including psychological pressure. Safety of responders depends on the facts that they should work in teams, for shorter durations, have a healthy diet and have relaxation times.
Shri Balaji Singh while sharing his experiences said that scales and landscape of response have to be looked into in a different perspective. He said that there is need for framework and system in institutionalization of response. He highlighted that every resource being utilized in response is a tactical resource and is performing during response. Thus there is a requirement of motivation and safety of entire team. He said that precautions to be taken for safety of responders include knowledge of protocols to be adhered to, camps must have place for quarantine, pool sample testing of teams and special consideration for treatment of responders. In terms of development of system for safety of responders, he said that awareness about safety protocols, development of procurement protocols, SOPs for camp management, smaller team deployment, formation of backup teams for deployment, Training for safety, stress management, personal hygiene, how to identify and manage covid 19 patients and their transportation and sanitization of camps need to be stressed upon. He also highlighted the need for contingency planning so that backup plans are also ready for implementation and rehearsed.
Shri Vikram Gurjar, Dy. Commandant NIDM then said that in the multi hazard scenario responders need to follow certain protocols and Covid 19 has led to make the decision makers think about changes that can be brought in these protocols. While taking the example of floods, which is the major natural disaster striking India and whose season is just round the corner, he explained the safety guidelines which responders must follow. He said training and capacity building are important areas which need constant investment and planning. Safety of responders must include training as per their roles, clear roles and responsibilities and safety equipments, sanitization protocols and gloves etc.
Then the session of question and answer was open and following was deliberated: • Behaviour of people in this changing environment needs attention while responding to disasters. • Selection criteria of formation of teams/ task forces need to be done through a system wherein immunity and health conditions of responders must be given priority • Parametres must be laid down for formation of fusion centres at district or below level wherein data can be collected for resource planning • There should be changes in trained responders only under extreme circumstances. • Virtual Emergency Operation centres need to be designed and made operational to avoid physical contacts etc. st • Guidelines for 1 responders will be different for different levels and disasters and hence training must be designed according to specific guidelines to 1st responders. • SOPs must be part of Block and District DM plans. • NIDM must identify experts/ resource persons at district or state levels for preparation of state and district level DM plans. • Database of vulnerable population including disabled persons need to be developed. • Regional cooperation and sharing of best practices also need to be strengthened. • Community based disaster risk management for Covid 19 must be implemented. • Strengthening of regional response mechanism and Inter agency group need focussed approach. The webinar ended with thanks to Panelists, ED NIDM, participants, Training cell and support staff.
Key Takeaways 1. Protocols as prescribed by Government of India from time to time must form part of response procedure. 2. Database of vulnerable population must be available with the responders. 3. Social norms must be followed by responders to the extent possible. 4. Emergency operations centre (EOC) must be strengthened and made functional 24x7 and 365 days so as to keep a watch of changing scenarios and facilitating response work. 5. Use of Technology for identifying and addressing need of survivors must be ensured. IDRN is one such platform which provides database of manpower and equipments to be utilized. 6. Special care of differently abled persons must be focussed in terms of support equipments and accompanying persons. 7. Psychological pressure and fatigue of responders with respect to increased work hours and destruction during response must be addressed for effective response. Annexure 1 National Institute of Disaster Management Webinar on "Safety of Responders in Light of Covid-19" June 2, 2020 - 2 to 4 pm List of Participants Sl. No. Name Email
1. Manoj Kumar Bindal [email protected]
2. Aditi Saini [email protected]
3. Rajat Kumar Sharma [email protected]
4. shekher [email protected]
5. Pankaj Kumar [email protected]
6. Dr. Ishwar Singh [email protected]
7. Dr SP Verma [email protected]
8. pradeep kumar [email protected]
9. Suraj Shukla [email protected]
10. Rahul Jain [email protected]
11. Paresh Chitnis [email protected]
12. Balaji Singh Chowhan [email protected]
13. Priyadarshan [email protected]
14. Arun Verma [email protected]
15. Vikram Gurjar [email protected]
16. niraj0165 [email protected]
17. Pankaj Adhikari [email protected]
18. rahul [email protected]
19. Anuradha Kumari [email protected]
20. Randeep Jaggi [email protected]
21. Dr Gopal Dixit [email protected]
22. Akanksha [email protected]
23. Gurusaravanan Manoharan [email protected]
24. Pooja Pancholi [email protected]
25. Rahuldev [email protected]
26. Nitesh Kumar [email protected] 27. Rahul Jain [email protected]
28. Aloysius Rego [email protected]
29. Harpreet Kaur [email protected]
30. Bhawna Thakur [email protected]
31. shailendra singh [email protected]
32. Dr Vivek Mor [email protected]
33. Ashfaq Malik [email protected]
34. sharmapriyabrat700 [email protected]
35. KevinThomas P [email protected]
36. prakriti Mahajan [email protected]
37. Ashish Panda [email protected]
38. Rameez sudhan [email protected]
39. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DISASTER [email protected] MANAGEMENT
40. Puja Ghosh [email protected]
41. pradeep kumar [email protected]
42. Deep Narayan [email protected]
43. KAMLESH KUMAR [email protected]
44. Simran Purswani [email protected]
45. Ranjeet Ranjan [email protected]
46. DR. PRASENJIT KUNDU [email protected]
47. hitesh barot [email protected]
48. LAKSHMI NARAYANA NAGISETTY [email protected]
49. pranaykrgupta [email protected]
50. Himani Bodh [email protected]
51. shalini93upadhyay [email protected]
52. shyam krishna [email protected]
53. Anumita Mondal [email protected]
54. Pankaj Joshi [email protected]
55. Ravi Verma [email protected]
56. Alex L( IOB) [email protected]
57. Chandrani Neogi [email protected]
58. nitesh kumar [email protected] 59. Manas Pant [email protected]
60. taniatani199 [email protected]
61. Bikram [email protected]
62. Aprajita Singla [email protected]
63. Amaresh Charantimath [email protected]
64. Dr. Droupti Yadav [email protected]
65. B c amaresh [email protected]
66. Mir Sumira [email protected]
67. Raju Thapa [email protected]
68. Nitish Barole [email protected]
69. ASHIQ HUSSAIN [email protected]
70. Dr B.K. Goswami [email protected]
71. Karan Mengi [email protected]
72. Aabid Hussain Khan [email protected]
73. Barnali Bera [email protected]
74. Lt Col DC Vashista,JD NIDM [email protected]
75. Dr. Prasenjit Kundu [email protected]
76. Er.Mukesh Kumar Saubhagya [email protected]
77. droupti.yadav [email protected]
78. hitesh barot [email protected]
79. Santosh Kumar [email protected]
80. col V N Supnekar [email protected]
81. Amaresh Charantimath [email protected]
82. Virendra Dani [email protected]
83. Col. Dalbir Dhadwal [email protected]
84. s .vijaya prasad [email protected]
85. yashi Nagar [email protected]
86. paulpatric1968 [email protected]
87. Anuradha Kumari [email protected]
88. Dr RK Abhay [email protected]
89. aman.nehra85 [email protected]
Brochure Webinar on Safety of Responders in the light of Covid 19 About NIDM National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), upgraded from the National Centre for Disaster Management (NCDM) which was created by Government of India, got statutory status under an Act of Parliament viz Disaster Management Act 2005, with a vision to play the role of a premier institute for capacity development in India and the region. Under the Disaster Management Act 2005, NIDM has been assigned nodal responsibilities for human resource development, capacity building, training, research, documentation and policy advocacy in the field of disaster management.
The Institute believes that by developing and promoting "Culture of Prevention", it can ensure involvement of all stakeholders and work towards fulfillment of its mandate. The Institute firmly believes that the goals can only be met with coordination and partnerships with various stakeholders such as ministries and departments of the central, state and local governments, academic, research and technical organizations and other bi-lateral and multi-lateral international agencies.
NIDM provides Capacity Building support to various National and State level agencies in the field of Disaster Risk Reduction. The Institute's vision is to create a Disaster Resilient India by building the capacity at all levels for disaster prevention and preparedness.
Introduction
In present days entire world is fighting a battle with pandemic Covid 19 and India is one of them. The Government of India has notified the pandemic as a disaster and has been responding to it on a war footing along with State Governments and UT administration to minimize the health impact due to the pandemic along with keeping economy also on course. Many other stakeholders have also joined hands with the Government in responding to this tragedy. It is imperative that such a large scale response should be well streamlined, well-coordinated, to ensure that the decisions made at the top level are followed at by different participating stakeholders systematically to ensure their own safety and also safety of those being rescued. It is to state here that India has been under lockdown since March 25, 2020 and life has come to almost standstill. Since then all the places such as Malls Picture halls, hotels educational Institutions, marriage halls and transport had been non operational. Most of the persons got stranded where ever they were before the lockdown. This had created challenges regarding food, drinking water and financial health. Country’s economy had also slowed down and had impacted industrial and commercial health of the country. Everybody had been clueless as to how to tackle this situation. At this time when Covid 19 is threatening to increase further, India is struck with Amphan cyclone, Heat wave and Locust attack besides the Gas leak in Vishakhapatnam. Social unrest from educational sector, industrial sector might also add to the misery. Local response and NDRF had to be geared up for responding to such calamities following the protocols of covid 19. Season of natural disasters has begun and viewing the history it is going to be worsened in coming days. Since response to such emergencies is to be done with high standards which had been followed till now, safety of responders is foremost necessity.
Now that unlocking of areas has begun after almost 67 days of lockdown. People will try to come out to streets or at least out of their houses. With advent of flood, cyclone and heat wave season safety has to be of foremost importance in order to check the increase of number of covid cases and also mitigate the impact of upcoming disasters. Generally mask and hand gloves are the basic safety equipment which can be used by responders for their own safety but there are certain other areas where safety is a major concern. These areas are Relief camp, team formation, pre-positioning of ambulances and local police/ SDRF etc. These are the places which need special focus besides deployment of teams.
Fear psychosis and free movement of care providers who provide assistance to the persons with disabilities also need special attention through sensitive responders.
Outcome
This webinar will discuss the safety of persons responding to natural disasters in such complex emergency situation. It also plans to develop certain protocols for safety of responders in the light of covid 19.
Session Plan Time Topic Speaker 1400-1410 Inaugural address Maj. Gen. Manoj Kumar Bindal, ED NIDM 1410 - 1420 About the webinar and Shri Shekher Chaturvedi introduction to subject 1420 - 1435 Safety of responders and support Shri Arun Sahdeo from Government agencies 1435 - 1450 Safety of local level responders Shri Balaji Singh 1450 – 1505 Safety of responders while Dr. Chandrani addressing issues of Vulnerable Bandyopadhyay groups and Disabled persons 1505 - 1510 Psycho-social issues of Shri Ashish Panda responders 1510 - 1520 Safety of Responders Shri Vikram Gurjar 1520 - 1550 Open house discussion 1550 - 1555 Summing Up and Closing Shri Shekher Chaturvedi remarks Maj. Gen. Manoj Kumar Bindal
Team of Webinar
Overall supervision Maj. Gen. Manoj Kumar Bindal Executive Director NIDM
Panelists Shri Balaji Singh Chowhan Disaster Management Expert
Shri Arun Sahdeo UNDP
Dr. Chandrani Bandyopadhyay Asstt. Prof. , NIDM
Shri Ashish Panda Consultant, NIDM Shri Vikram Gurjar Dy. Commandant & In charge Training, NIDM
Moderator Shri Shekher Chaturvedi Asstt. Prof., NIDM
Support Shri Arun Verma Young Professional, NIDM
NIDM IT Support Shri Bala Puthiran GIS Specialist
Shri Shobhit Sharma Young Professional