Stressing for setting up of Junior Red Cross (JRC) and Youth Red Cross (YRC) wings in the educational institutions, Divisional Commissioner Dr Pawan Kotwal who is also the Chairman Indian Red Cross society today said that partaking of youth is vital for expanding the ambit of Red Cross activities.Divisional Commissioner said this while chairing a meeting of Red Cross Society here today.Dr Kotwal asked the educational institutions to incorporate training modules in their co-curricular to have multipronged benefit of creating an army of young volunteers who can extend a helping hand in crisis besides inculcating a spirit of charity and social responsibility.Div Com asked Director school education to issue circulars regarding first aid trainings along with collection of Red cross fund at the scale of Rs5 per student for primary school and Rs 10 for secondary school and colleges, 30% of this total amount collected by the schools shall be retained during the financial year by the institution for activities of red cross while 70% of the amount would be transferred to the District Red Cross Committee. While 50% funds collected by colleges and universities are to be deposited with Indian red Cross Society and 50% can be used by the institution for carrying out Red Cross activities.Dr Kotwal also directed Director School Education to formulate a data base for the unutilized Red Cross funds available with the government schools and deposit the same with the society.
While Principals of private schools were asked to submit a training calendar pertaining to activities of Red Cross society within 10 days .Chairman directed the incorporation of First Aid training in ASHA module under convergence mode for creating Master trainers to achieve the set goal of training 5000 youth in first aid. It was also expounded to encourage JRC and YRC to participate in interstate and international level camps for wider exposure.The meeting was further made aware of the forthcoming Red Cross mela on 18th and 19th Feb, raffle tickets of which were issued to the principals present in the meeting.Earlier Secretary Region Office IRCS apprised through a power point presentation about society’s role in activities including Blood Donation camps ,emergency services , nursing services, Red Cross Mela ,Yoga Day Celebrations, Distribution of Dust Bins to colleges in Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, cash assistance to accident victims, immunization camps, free medical camps, free diabetes detection camp, red cross dispensary .It was also informed in the meeting that with an aim to train more than 5000 volunteers per year in first aid 27 camps were held till December 2016 in which 1450 people were imparted training .Also in a first of its kind initiative, 150 VLWs /MPWs of rural development department were also trained . Among others present in the meeting were IGP Jammu zone Danesh Rana, Director Urban Local Bodies Soujanya Kumar Sharma, Director Social Welfare Veer Ji Hanglu, Director School Education Babila Rakwal, Director Radio Kashmir Jammu Anjali Sharma, Joint Director Information Manisha Sarin, Principals of various educational institutions, President of chamber of Traders federation (Regional Member) Red Cross, Neeraj Anand, Hony Secretary R C Puri and members of Executive Committee IRCS.