IGNOU helps coastal community upgrade skills, fight disaster
By IANSWednesday, January 27, 2010
NEW DELHI - In an effort to enable the coastal community in Tamil Nadu upgrade their skills and provide them with long-term, sustainable livelihood options, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) have come together to implement a diasaster preparedness programme.
Under this demand-driven knowledge is provided to the community through the internet, print media and mobile phones.
V.N. Rajasekharan Pillai, vice chancellor of IGNOU, said: We are the knowledge partners of MSSRF. We will be setting up colleges for rural communities in different locations. The Poompuhar college is the first one to be launched.
“The attempt is to develop a climate-resilient coastal community with knowledge and skills necessary to overcome the adverse impact of tsunamis and rise in sea level, Pillai added.
The college will train fishermen in the use of mobile technology, scientific data and market-related information to reduce operational costs while increasing their income.
The MSSRF built a Rs. 2.7 crore Fish for All Research and Training Centre at Poompuhar in Tamil Nadu. The centre includes facilities like cold rooms, ice plants, fish pre-processing halls, research lab, training hall, dormitory, and a resource centre that would provide information on climate, height of sea waves, potential fishing zones and other market-related data.
The fishermen are trained on reading data like the height of sea waves, potential fishing zones and the fish prices in different markets that are flashed on their mobile phones.
The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), under the Ministry of Earth Sciences, forecast sea wave heights and also the zones of fish agglomeration. These forecasts are transmitted by MSSRF, by tying-up with mobile telephone companies, to the fishermen in real time.
IGNOU is also looking at offering a short-term course for women at Poompuhar on hygienic handling of the catch to prevent spoilage and contamination by pathogenic organisms.
