Village Disaster Management Team Programme
Building community-led disaster preparedness in flood-prone blocks through VDMT formation and mock drills.
About This Project
Working across 60 flood-prone villages in Murshidabad and Nadia districts — two of West Bengal's most flood-affected districts, inundated in 6 of the last 10 years — BITAN established Village Disaster Management Teams of 15–20 trained volunteers in each village.
Each VDMT received a 5-day intensive training covering disaster risk assessment, evacuation planning, first aid, search and rescue basics, and community communication. Teams then prepared a village-specific Disaster Management Plan identifying hazard-prone areas, evacuation routes, safe shelter locations, and vulnerable households requiring priority support.
BITAN co-ordinated with block disaster management authorities to integrate VDMTs into the official district early-warning communication chain — so that when flood alerts are issued, VDMT members receive SMS notifications and can begin community preparedness actions before water levels rise. Annual mock drills, attended by block administration officials, test and reinforce the plans.
What We Did
- 5-day VDMT training — disaster risk, evacuation planning, first aid, search & rescue basics
- Village-level Disaster Management Plan preparation for all 60 villages
- VDMT integration into district early-warning SMS chain
- Basic first-aid kit provisioning — one kit per VDMT
- Annual mock drills — flood evacuation and rescue simulation, attended by block officials
- Mapping of vulnerable households — elderly, persons with disabilities, pregnant women — for priority evacuation
- Quarterly VDMT review meetings — updating plans, replacing inactive members
From the Field
Challenges & How We Addressed Them
Sustaining VDMT engagement between disasters — when members may lose motivation without an immediate threat — is an ongoing challenge. BITAN addresses this through quarterly review meetings, annual mock drills that are framed as community events, and recognition of active VDMT members at block-level government functions — maintaining visibility and social status as a motivator.
“Last year when the flood alert came at midnight, our VDMT members were already going door to door waking people up and moving the elderly to the school building. By the time the water rose, everyone in our village was safe. No other village in the block was that prepared.”
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