Vijayawada:The central government’s MY Bharat initiative has begun with a target to enroll one lakh civil defence volunteers across the nation on the first day of the initiative on Monday.
At the backdrop of the recent escalation in tensions between India and Pakistan, the Union ministry of youth affairs and sports has given a nationwide call for the youths to rise for the cause of the nation especially when it faces emergency situations.
Though people of all age-groups are welcome to enroll as civil defence volunteers, the focus is mainly on those aged between 15 and 29 while those above 29 years are taken in as members.
Those who enroll as volunteers will be given basic training on services like rescue, evacuation, first aid, emergency care, vehicular traffic management, crowd control, public safety etc and in helping the local authorities in times of disaster response and rehabilitation efforts.
Earlier, the state disaster management authority in coordination with UNICEF, came up with an initiative called ‘Apada Mitra’ where youngsters from rural backgrounds were given basic training in dealing with natural calamities, first-aid and even situations of snake bite. The volunteers are attached to the local authorities that would make use of their services.
With the new initiative of MY Bharat, these trained youths will be roped in in addition to the newcomers to undergo basic training to help the local, district and state authorities in rescue and relief works.
Nehru Yuva Kendra district youth officer S Ramu said, “We are getting good response from the youths. They are coming forward in significant numbers to enroll as civil defence volunteers in the city on the first day of the launch of the MY Bharat initiative.”
More people are advised to access the official MY Bharat portal ‘https://mybharat.gov.in’ to register themselves as volunteers.
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