KS Vignesh
The classical characterization of disaster is unfamiliarity, unpredictability, uncertainty, vulnerability, urgency, intensity and danger. Major disasters include earthquake, landslides, volcanic eruptions, floods hurricanes, fires, tornados, blizzards, tsunamis, cyclones. Apart from causing deaths and severe ill health, disasters also lead to large scale displacement, injuries, epidemics, and substantial economic losses to the communities. Though every emergency or disaster has its own characteristics and demands but the basic measures under disaster management include prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery for which regular training and awareness activities are needed especially among students. The objective of the study was to assess the extent of awareness about disasters and their management among school going children. It was an educational interventional design with an exploratory research approach adopting nonprobability purposive sampling technique in Kanyakumari district. The study also adopted geo-spatial technique to identify the flood vulnerable school in the district. Survey method was employed, on 400 participants aged between 12 and16 years using a pre-tested semi structured questionnaire data sheet. The outcome revealed that out of 400 students 43.9% (before intervention) and 93.3% (after intervention) had knowledge of disaster management. These findings emphasize that the extent of knowledge is not yet satisfactory and there is a severe need of providing knowledge to the school children. Disaster management can be compulsorily included in academic curriculum of all the students. Effective, purposeful training and awareness programs are to be timely conducted
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