Reducing Disaster Fatalities by Amateur Radio Club Station within District Emergency Operations Centers

Dr Kailash Gupta

The International Emergency Management Society – India Chapter 

Abstract: The aim of this article is advocacy for policy change by Wireless Planning and Coordination (WPC) Wing of the Ministry of Communication, Government of India to allow Indians to possess amateur radio transceiver (a radio capable of both transmission and reception) with the caveat of transmission only by an amateur radio licensee, as in the US. Amateur radio is a fragile fail-proof communication system that does not depend on other support system. Currently, amateur radio operators (ham) go to disaster sites with their equipment and restore emergency communication. In the process time is lost, when every second makes the difference between lives and deaths. The second aim is installing amateur radio club station within district emergency operations centres (DEOCs). Then, ham will quickly go to communication breakdown disaster-affected DEOC and restore amateur radio emergency communication, reducing disaster mortality, morbidity and tangible infrastructure losses. A district collector can install an amateur radio station within DEOC by investing approximately Rs 1.62 lakh only. For about 739 Indian districts, an investment of approximately only Rs 22 crore is required. Funds are available from State Disaster Response Fund and other sources.