As per the officials on Thursday, women living in slums of the national capital will receive training to assist the city’s fire service in putting out fires and raising awareness of the precautions that must be taken to avoid such disasters.
There are 860 slums which house around 10 lakh people. Till July, these slums have witnessed 76 incidents of fire, according to Delhi Fire Service data as per the news agency PTI.
As a result, the Delhi Fire Service has developed a strategy to train women living in these overcrowded slums in collaboration with the NGO “Mehar Charitable Society” so that they can take initial preventive actions to control the fire.
Delhi Fire Service Director Atul Garg stated that a Memoranda of Understanding has already been signed with three organisations to create awareness regarding the many aspects to control the fire in the initial stage.
The slum-dwellers who complete their training will be given a ‘Main bhi firefighter hoon (I too am a firefighter)’ certificate.
A record of contacts of the trained women will also be kept so that they can assist the fire department by reporting about fire in their area, which will eventually help the department to reach these areas.
“This will help women gain confidence and also help us cover every cluster in Delhi,” Garg added.
With the recent major fire in the nation’s capital, which claimed the lives of 27 people, Advocate Harita Mehta, the president and founder of Mehar Charitable Society, stated that she felt the need to educate women in fighting a fire.
According to her, the initiative is to provide training to women in every slum cluster in the city. This will be a continual process, and the NGO will gradually contact the Residential Welfare Associations in conjunction with the fire department.
The fire-fighting drive was conducted in Nehru Camp and Churiya Mohalla and the response was impressive.
“With resources available at home, be it sand, water or fire extinguisher, we can stop a fire from spreading further. Fire extinguishers will be provided to women in slum clusters by the NGO,” Mehta said.
Besides the NGO, the MoUs have also been signed with the BSES and the IP University.
(With inputs from PTI)
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