As the people of Bihar are in full swing to celebrate their 111th foundation day, the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA) joins Global Program under Caritas India to create awareness on lightning.

Every year, Caritas India participates in Bihar Diwas to be part of this state celebration and exhibits its best practices in disaster risk reduction. This year, the Global program took part in the celebration at Gandhi Maidan in the Nawada district, along with 14 other departments.

In Bihar, lightning strikes have become a new problem that disproportionately affects rural communities and results in many fatalities. Global Program decided to build the resilience of the people by creating awareness about lightning during Bihar Diwas from March 22 to 24, 2023, in collaboration with the Bihar State Disaster Management Authority.

Global Program took this opportunity to demonstrate the lightning arrester model, a replicable and affordable – community-based disaster risk reduction model. Around 25,000 people visited the pavilion to learn about its installation process.

Honorable Governor of Bihar, Shri Rajendra Vishwanath Alerkar; District Magistrate of Nawada, Smt. Udita Singh; Honourable VC, Dr. U.K. Mishra, Honourable Member P.N. Rai I.P.S (Retd), Sri Manish Kumar Verma I.A.S (Retd); and Mr. Sanjay Agrawal, IAS – secretary of the water resources and disaster management departments visited the pavilion and appreciated the work and Caritas India Global Program and the Community Lightning Arrester model.

The pavilion also promoted the Indravajra app developed by the Disaster Management Department of the Government of Bihar. The mobile app provides lightning alerts to the subscriber 45 minutes prior to lightning. Visitors were sensitised about the application and encouraged to download on their smartphones. The awareness messages were also disseminated using hoardings, banners, and posters.

Children too were involved and educated on lightning via a painting competition organised by Global Program. Rewards and prizes bearing awareness messages were presented in appreciation of the best painting. A total of 1050 children participated and painted pictures illustrating the dos and don’ts with respect to lightning disasters. The children also explained how lightning events have become more frequent over time and what precautions people should take to stay safe.

Ritu Kumar, one of the winners of the painting competition from Balika Vidyalaya, shares, “I am very happy to participate in the lightning painting competition. I learned about the Indravajra app and its use, and I will tell my family to install it. I am delighted after getting the winning prize.”