September 20, 2006	Wednesday	Sha'aban 26, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has observed that the Higher Education Commission (HEC) should send Pakistani students abroad on scholarship to pursue master’s degrees in disaster management.

“South Asian region is prone to natural disasters and therefore Pakistan must have disaster management experts in appropriate numbers,” UNDP adviser on risk reduction Naunehal Shah said while speaking at the launching ceremony of Urdu version of Gender dimensions for disaster management - A guide for South Asia here on Tuesday.

He said it was a positive sign that the work on creation of disaster management authority in Pakistan was underway. He said the credit for it went to UNDP which had made the proposal for setting up such an authority in 2003.

He said it was because of the absence of a disaster management authority that the government had to create ad hoc institutions like Erra and Federal Relief Commission.

He said there was lack of technical and specialised material on disaster management and gender related issues in Urdu language, and underlined the need to educate and prepare the people to cope with natural calamities in future in a better way to avert maximum possible human and material losses.

He said the dearth of such vital information and its negative impact on rescue, relief and rehabilitation were strongly felt in the post-earthquake scenario.

He highlighted the importance of pin-drop silence to rescue the people under debris after the quake. He said any disturbance created near a collapsed building can stop the screams of a stranded person reaching the rescuers.

The UNDP adviser said he had reached Margalla Towers after 45 minutes of the earthquake and found that there was a traffic jam as people had gathered there in large number in an unorganised manner, making it difficult for the ambulances to reach the scene.

He said he saw the Inspector General of Police on the scene standing at ease with a baton in his hand. “He was wondering what to do because we were not prepared for it”, he added.

UNDP Assistant Resident Representative Fayyaz Baqir stressed the need for urgent steps to facilitate the most vulnerable groups in disasters. He particularly mentioned the problems of women and said the obstacles created due to social traditions and culture should be removed.

Elaborating his point, he cited reports according to which many women were paralysed as they could not get medical treatment on time because their male family members neither wanted them to go to other cities for medical treatment nor were ready to allow male doctors to treat them.

He said the UNDP had a policy to publish all the information that generates into local languages.

The principal coordinator of Rural Development Policy Institute (RDPI), Abdul Shakoor Sindhu, highlighted the general neglect towards gender issues especially in disaster situations. He underlined the need for having more and more material on disaster management in local languages.

Translator of the book, Almas Saleem, said translation of the book which received worldwide appreciation was a challenge for her. She said it was an exciting experience and she learnt a lot during this exercise. She said she started translating the book in October last year and the first draft of the Urdu version was ready in January this year but she continued to improve upon it.

Dr Rifat Haque, director Women Studies Centre, Allama Iqbal Open University, deplored the intolerable attitude of policy- makers towards specific issues concerning women.