Preventive Disaster Management

Preventive Disaster Management

Kakkengad Farmers' Club sets an example

The dreaded disease Chikungunea struck some parts of Kerala recently leading to loss of many precious lives. Panic struck the entire state  and the people were driven to a state of desperation. The state government raised an alarm when the number of deaths started mounting as days passed by. A central team and experts from World Health Organisation visited the disease prone areas of the state to take stock of the situation. Experts suggested that keeping the surroundings clean is the only measure which could be taken to escape from this dreaded disease as so far no preventive vaccine has been developed.

Taking a cue from the advise of District Development Manager(DDM) of NABARD, Kakkengad Farmers Club sponsored by NMGB took the lead to launch a systematic plot to plot cleanliness operation and door to door awareness campaign to combat the mosquitoe menance. The strong network of SHGs, for which these Farmers Clubs provided umbrella support, facilitated carrying out the operation in a systematic, foolproof and time bound manner much before the state machinery could launch its “Litter Free-Clean Kerala” campaign. The Farmers Club and the Coordination Committee of SHGs functioning under its fold convened an emergency meeting of their members and discussed threadbare about various precautionary measures  that could be taken to prevent the dreaded disease from making any inroads into their panchayath. The suggested plan of action and inputs on preventive measures provided by the DDM were discussed in the meeting. Besides, the advise of doctors attached to Public Health Centre was also taken. A plan of action covering the entire panchayath was chalked out in the meeting which unanimously decided to plunge into action the next day itself by actively involving all the 200 SHG under their fold and their members. They did not waste any time and the message about the plan of action was passed on to all the SHGs on the same day evening itself through the SHG Coordinators and the campaign was launched in the right earnest the next day morning.

The very fact that about eighty per cent of the population of the panchayath were linked to the SHG movement, stood in good stead for spreading the outreach of the programme throughout the panchayth within a very short time. The beauty of the plan was that each SHG member took the responsibility of cleaning the surroundings of her/his own house with the help of members of the group. Articles which are considered to act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes were collected and destroyed and funnels of septic tanks were covered with plastic nets. All places prone to water logging were cleaned and waste disposal carried out in the entire Panchayath. Besides, each household was taught about the precautionary measures to be taken. Around 4000 SHG members carried out the operation, which lasted for three days, in all the fourteen wards of the Panchayath.

Through this initiative, the Farmers Clubs and SHGs have proved to the society that they can act as triggers for preventive disaster management  by keeping aloft the dictum “self help and mutual help are the best medicines for keeping away any disaster from one’s doorstep”. The proactive role played by the Farmers Club and the SHGs under its fold was appreciated by the print and visual media. Malayala Manorama, one of the leading dailies carried a feature about this initiative in its 9 October 2006 edition under “Sukrutha Keralam”.