Disaster management:

This presentation is based on my experiences in disaster management after the earthquake

in Kutch in 2001 and the tsunami in 2004.

What are disasters? It could be naturally occurring or man-made

Natural calamities – floods, cyclones, droughts, earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons,

hurricanes, avalanches, landslides etc. SOME SUDDEN WHILE SOME CAN BE
PREDICTED AND MONITORED

Grouping of natural calamities depending upon their potential to cause damage to human
life and property.
• While natural calamities like earth-quakes, droughts, floods and cyclones, forst
fires, could be regarded as major,
• hailstorms, avalanches, landslides, fire accidents, etc. whose impact is localised
and intensity of the damage is much less can be categorised as minor calamities.

At the outset I would like to point out that disaster mangement is a vry complex matter
that spans from disaster forecasting to after-disaster procedures, steps and policies.

• Disaster prevention/mitigation – vulnerability assessment and dissemnitaion;

prevenive structural measures (eg. Earthquake prone zones); Early warning
systems
• Disaster preparedness, mitigation and response
• Contingency plans to ameliorate the social, economic and environmental impacts
of the calamity

To this end some of the steps that India has taken are:
• National Disaster Management Framework
• The Tenth Five Year Plan document has a detailed chapter on Disaster
Management. Mitigation is being institutionalized into developmental planning.
• Measures for flood mitigation were taken from 1950 onwards. As against the
total of 40 million hectares prone to floods, area of about 15 million hectares have
been protected by construction of embankments.
• Drought Control: various programmes launched including Drought Prone Area
Programme (DPAP), Desert Development Programme (DDP), National
Watershed Development Project for Rainfed Areas (NWDPRA), Watershed
Development Programme for Shifting Cultivation (WDPSC), Integrated Water
Development Project (IWDP), Integrated Afforestation and Eco-development
Project Scheme (IAEPS).
• Flood preparedness and response - National Disaster Risk Management
Programme in all the flood-prone States.
• Earthquake Risk Mitigation: A comprehensive programme has been taken up for
earthquake risk mitigation.
• National Core Group for Earthquake Risk Mitigation constituted consisting of
experts in earthquake engineering and administrators assigned with the
responsibility of drawing up a strategy and plan of action for mitigating the
impact of earthquakes; providing advice and guidance to the States on various
aspects of earthquake mitigation; developing/organizing the preparation of
handbooks/pamphlets/type designs for earthquake resistant construction;
working out systems for assisting the States in the seismically vulnerable zones
to adopt/integrate appropriate Bureau of Indian Standards codes in their building
byelaws; evolving systems for training of municipal engineers as also practicing
architects and engineers in the private sector in the salient features of Bureau of
Indian Standards codes and the amended byelaws; evolving a system of
certification of architects/engineers for testing their knowledge of earthquake
resistant construction; evolving systems for training of masons and carry out
intensive awareness generation campaigns.
• Review of building bye-laws and their adoption
• National Earthquake Risk Mitigation Project - An Earthquake Mitigation Project
has been drawn up, with an estimated cost of Rs.1132 crore. The programme
includes detailed evaluation and retrofitting of lifeline buildings such as
hospitals, schools, water and power supply units, telecommunication buildings,
airports/airport control towers, railway stations, bus stands and important
administrative buildings in the States in seismic zones IV and V.
• National Cyclone Mitigation Project: A project for Cyclone Mitigation (estimated
cost Rs. 1050 crore) has been drawn up in consultation with the cyclone prone
States. This project envisages construction of cyclone shelters, coastal shelter belt
plantation in areas which are prone to storm surges, strengthening of warning
systems, training and education etc. This project has also been given in-principle
clearance by the Planning Commission and is being taken up with World Bank
assistance.
• Landslide Hazard Mitigation: A National Core Group has been constituted under
the Chairmanship of Secretary, Border Management and comprising of Secretary,
Department of Science and Technology, Secretary, Road Transport & Highways,
and the Heads of Geological Survey of India and National Remote Sensing
Agency for drawing up a strategy and plan of action for mitigating the impact of
landslides, provide advise and guidance to the State Governments on various
aspects of landslide mitigation, monitor the activities relating to landslide
mitigation including landslide hazard zonation and to evolve early warning
systems and protocols for landslides/landslide risk reduction.
• Disaster Risk Management Programme: A Disaster Risk Management Programme
has been taken up in 169 districts in 17 multi-hazard prone States with the
assistance from UNDP, USAID and European Union. Under this project, the
States are being assisted to draw up State, district and Block level disaster
management plans; village disaster management plans are being developed in
 conjunction with the Panchayati Raj Institutions and disaster management teams
consisting of village volunteers are being trained in various preparedness and
response functions such as search and rescue, first aid, relief coordination, shelter
management etc.
• Disaster Awareness in School Curriculum: Disaster management as a subject in
Social Sciences has been introduced in the school curriculum for Class VIII & IX.

Reality:

Disaster management is a social process and hence mirrors all the biases and prejudices
that operate in society. This is is never taken into account

1. Caste
2. gender issues
3. Identification of who is affected
4. relief – when does it end and when does rehabilitation begin: assumption of
linearity
5. loss of livelihood
6. collapse of economy
7. trauma
8. housing
9. confidence building measures to restart livelihood – especially going back into the
sea
10.

1. Flaws in the government policy

The many flaws in the approach of the State Government in its very approach to relief
and rehabilitation have contributed substantially to the impending food scarcity. Some of
the problems can be identified as:

• The major problem that can be identified is the limited scope of the “affected person”
definition by the state. While the initial approach was based on the innumerable lives
lost and property damaged it was later rectified to a certain extent with the
recognition of petty traders, farmers, landless agricultural labourers, etc as livelihood
affected persons. The definition of the affected people still has not been given a
rational approach and there is a lot of confusion of who is primarily affected and
secondarily affected and not affected. Even with the identified categories this
recognition, however, has not translated into an effective mitigation of the losses that
have been suffered. It has also not meant that these communities have been targeted
with adequate relief. In fact, presently, it is these communities, especially the landless
agricultural labourers who are facing a serious food scarcity. In many villages people
who have totally lost their livelihood were told that the government officials told
them that they are not entitled for relief since they were not affected.
• The hierarchical prioritizing by the government wherein the fisherpeople are at the
top and the landless somewhere at the bottom is a major flaw in terms of the
constitutional mandate to substantive equality by the government. Thus the interests
of the most marginalized are not taken care of despite the fact that they are as
vulnerable as the rest if not more. In Karaikal for example, the fisherpeople have
received 60 kgs of rice while the landless agricultural labourers have received only 5
kgs. This is inexplicable since both categories of people have lost their livelihoods to
the tsunami, the fisherman having lost his boat / nets and thus the ability to fish while
the landless agricultural labourer has lost his/her ability to get work on lands since
these were salinated. This differential treatment has resulted in the landless, mostly
dalits, facing a serious food crisis.

• The distribution of relief by the non-government agencies also suffer from this
problem of having sidelined the other categories,( non fishing communities) except
for those whose mandate is to work with these groups. In Nagapattinam the
distribution of relief was coordinated by the NGO Coordination Centre, which
focused entirely on fishing villages and at that on the Meenavar community. There
was no attempt made to assess the losses and needs in the villages where agricultural
lands had been salinated.

• The local administration has viewed the affected persons as a “community” without
being sensitive to the fact that the 'community' is not homogenous and there exist
serious caste-cased divisions where the more powerful communities obviously
dominate. This has combined with an inadequate monitoring of relief with the end
result that whatever relief is supplied is cornered by dominant communities.

• The inexplicable stoppage of relief at a preliminary stage and jumping into so-called
rehabilitation process can also be blamed for this food scarcity. Even before all
categories of affected people were properly “identified” relief was stopped and thus
those “identified” or rather accepted as affected the relief was stopped. Rehabilitation
has been jumped into without relief being done properly. One reason for this being
the incorrect assessment of the impact of the tsunami. Unlike the Bhuj earthquake in
Gujarat, the tsunami here has almost entirely obliterated the livelihoods of lakhs of
people. Thus, unless the livelihoods are restored there is no way possible for the
affected people to fend for themselves.

• Given the reality of destroyed livelihoods and lack of earning opportunities of the
affected populations, the Food for Work scheme suffers from over bureaucratization
and lack of an imaginative approach. The local administration's( Nagapattinam)
opinion was that under this “special” scheme the affected people have to identify
some suitable work, get it approved by the Ward Members or Panchayat President,
then personally come to the Collectorate and submit the proposal. This when accepted
by the administration would provide the people 7 kgs of rice and Rs 15/- as daily
 wages. Firstly, the process that has been envisaged for the scheme requires people,
yet to recover from the tsunami, would have to prepare a proposal and get it approved
by the local administration. Then, after they get it attested by the Ward Members and
Panchayat President, they would have to travel to the Collectorate and get the
proposal approved. For all these efforts, if sanctioned, they would receive 7 kgs of
rice and Rs 15/-, which amounts to a grand total that is less than the stipulated
minimum wages.

What all the problems noted above indicate is the serious need for an inclusive
livelihood rehabilitation policy for those sections of the affected societies who are
economically and socially deprived and inevitably are either labourers in fishing industry
and agriculture or marginal farmers.

Pointers towards a more inclusive approach

The immediate need is for several policy decisions on issues that have some to the fore
yet have not been given adequate attention by the government.

Enumerating the affected communities

F The enumeration of the total populations affected by the tsunami is a necessary
task without which it would be difficult to ensure their food security. The various
categories of occupations that they are engaged in, also needs to be enumerated.
This serves several purposes. Firstly towards understanding the impact on them
and secondly aid in framing any kind of relief and rehabilitation policy for them

Compensation Related
F It is imperative that the government works out a compensation package for those
not catered to yet. This would necessarily imply compensation for loss of
livestock as well. This could be worked out in such fashion so as to enable the
families to purchase the livestock lost. It is also imperative that the government
immediately announces a compensation package for the tillers where agricultural
lands have been salinated. The point to note here is that the compensation must be
announced in the names of the tillers i.e. to the owner where s/he is the tiller or to
the sharecropper / tenant where s/he is the tiller.
F The government must immediately announce and disburse an ex-gratia amount
for the landless agricultural labourers working on lands that have been salinated.
F Pensions for destitude women, single mothers, elders, disabled, widows, etc must
be immediately announced and disbursed. The National Old Age Pension
Scheme, National Family Benefit Scheme and the National Maternity Benefit
Scheme must be activated .

2. Relief
F Relief and rehabilitation must not be viewed as two mutually exclusive processes.
Instead the government should view these as parallel processes where the relief
 part ends only when rehabilitation is complete. Relief has to be continued till
rehabilitation is completed and not stopped when the process of restoring
livelihoods has just begun. For the fisher-people where there is some semblance
of rehabilitation processes set in motion too this holds true and relief has to be
ensured till they are back in the sea. In the case of farmers and landless labourers
for whom there is no rehabilitation plan or process initiated, the stoppage of relief
is inexplicable.
F The first step in this process is the distribution of relief cards to all affected
families. This must be done in consultations and with the active participation of
the panchayats, CBOs and NGOs. Care must be taken to see that the caste biases
do not mar this process, which would then result in the marginalization of the
already marginalized sections of society.
F Since the situation is fast approaching a crisis there must be an immediate round
of distribution of foodgrain relief to all categories of affected people and not
merely those who have got relief in the first round. It must be ensured that the
relief that is distributed consists not only of cereals, pulses and oil but also of
vegetables and fruits. While the foodgrains should be distributed through the PDS
infrastructure, the vegetables and fruits could be supplied through the village Self
Help Groups (SHGs) at subsidized rates. The government could provide loans to
the SHGs to facilitate this thereby also providing some alternate livelihood option
to few of the affected people. This is necessary as one needs to address the
problem of nutritional security apart from mere food security , particularly for
children, pregnant women and old people.
F The balwadis / anganwadis must be immediately restarted where they are yet to
be so and this structure must be used for ensuring the nutrition of not only
children but also of destitude women, pregnant women, disabled people, etc. The
Mid-day meal scheme needs to be extended to provide nutritious meals three
times a day to these vulnerable sections of society.
F The Annapurna Scheme should also be immdiatley activated and food grains
should be distributed to deistitute/Senior citizens covered under the National Old
Age Pension Scheme. This is a pressing need in view of the number of deaths in
the tsunami affected areas , rendering old people increasingly vulnerable.
This form of relief outlined above must be continued until such time where the affected
families obtain the capacity and the opportunity to resume normal livelihood activities.

F Interim livelihood rehabilitation

Relief is only a temporary exercise but necessary until livelihood activities are resumed
and to this extent the government must take several steps to ensure that the livelihood
activities are resumed as soon as possible.

§ Announcement of special Food / Cash – for – work (FCW) scheme

The government must declare the entire Nagapattinam and Karaikal districts as
tsunami affected since the economic ramifications of the tsunami is far beyond
just the immediately affected coastal villages and announce for immediate FCW
 schemes wherever demanded. To this extent the government must pass immediate
orders for the activation of FCW schemes in the affected villages and the
neighbouring villages as well. The government must envisage, with the active
participation of the people, schemes for dalit and adivasi families. For instance,
the work could be establishment of cooperatives for brick kilns, milk diaries, etc.
Thus low-rate loans for initial capital could be provided for establishment of such
ventures. People could be trained in the initial phase receiving the food/cash as
per the scheme until they are capable of running these ventures independently.The
ordinary FCW schemes must be run for a minimum period of 15 days a month.
§ The Sampoorna Grameen Rozgar Yojana must be activated immediately. The
focus as per the scheme should be on the rural poor ready to do manual and
unskilled labour in and around the village habitat. Once again the preference as
per the scheme should be on agricultural wage earners, marginal farmers, non
agricultural wage earners. Since as per the scheme 5% of the funds and food
grains should be retained in the Ministry and utilized in areas of acute distress
arising out of natural calamities, the tsunami affected areas must be allotted the
money and grains immediately.

1. Permanent rehabilitation
The government in its orders has till now adopted a property-owner centric policy in
addressing livelihood issues through rehabilitation packages and only recognized those
who own boats and go out to sea as well as those who own and operate small shops in the
villages. In terms of the farming community that owns the agricultural lands that were
inundated by sea waters, there are currently surveys being carried out by the revenue
departments of various districts to assess the extent of inundation and the degree of
salination. There have been indications from the government that a clear policy will be
formulated once the situation is properly assessed.

Be that as it may, it is undeniable that in any formulation of rehabilitation packages for

livelihoods the people of the fishing and farming communities that do not own boats, nets
or lands generally remain ignored. What is of grave concern is that these questions of
livelihoods of those who are also affected by the tsunami, and do also form a part of the
fishing community, has not yet been mentioned in any governmental policy. What is
clear is that those who own no property and are merely dependent on those who do own
property merit no attention in rehabilitation efforts.

It is time for the government to shed its inertia and adopt a pro-poor policy in the
tsunami-affected villages. This could include:

F The government must declare a policy of providing agricultural land to

landless dalits and adivasi agricultural labourers. There already exists a
scheme (TADHCO) whereby the government purchases 1 acre of land for
dalit agricultural labourers. It is imperative that the scheme is made
 compulsory for all affected villages and a minimum acreage stipulated for
purchase for such disbursal.
F Training and creation of employment opportunities for dalits and adivasis
The government must also envisage and propose skill-training opportunities
for dalits and adivasis. This has o be done in consultation with the communities.
F Creation of assets, which can be used to generate livelihood options such as
livestock, etc.

Other important issues:

Trauma care and counseling:

Child Care Centres:
Livelihood and alternate employment issues:
Housing and Reconstruction: