Thiruvananthapuram: The awareness of the people about natural disasters and the precautions to be taken against them is very low. This has been found from a post-flood survey conducted by the Kerala State Literacy Mission Authority (KSLMA). As many as 91.57 percent of the people do not know whether cyclone is a natural disaster or not. A total of 66.77 percent have not heard about what an emergency kit is or its utility.
The results of the survey were handed over to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by KSLMA director P.S. Sreekala here on Saturday.
The survey was conducted in 2,91,048 households covering all districts of the state. The respondents represented all sections of society with one person per household selected to respond. They included 41, 052 scheduled castes and 5, 042 scheduled tribe households, 1,55,906 women, 38 transgenders and the rest men.
Only 43.74 percent of the respondents have minimum knowledge on disasters like drought, floods, cyclone and earthquake.
The rest 56.26 percent did not have a basic idea of such natural phenomenon. Only 8.43 percent of the respondents thought cyclone is a natural disaster.
Nearly 41.86 percent of the respondents were unaware about the precautions to be taken during a natural calamity. Some 20.02 percent have not heard about the term ‘climate change.’ Around 17.15 percent were unaware of epidemics that can break out after floods.
About 59.48 percent came to know about the floods from television, 15.88 percent from newspapers and 11.13 from social media or the internet. This meant that 86.49 percent knew about the floods from the media. This has proved that disaster management messages can be successfully conveyed through these media.
Another finding is that 38.76 percent burnt their plastic wastes
