We’re no strangers to
natural disasters. Before the terrifying floods in Bihar as the giant,
turbulent river Kosi changes course over the face of a densely
populated plain, we’ve seen the effects of the tsunami in the the south
of the country and before that we’ve had the dreadful earthquake in
Gujarat and the deaths and destruction that it brought.
So what does the central government mean when it declares a disaster to
be a national calamity? Does it take the responsibility for providing
relief, rescuing victims and looking after them, rebuilding properties
that have been destroyed, helping people get back to their usual
activities with financial and infrastructural support? Not quite.
In 2003 the ministry of home affairs set up a National Institute of
Disaster Management, but the disposition of responsibility remained
what it was. The state governments were responsible for the actual
relief and rehabilitation, but the central government would provide
funds and materials and the services of central paramilitary forces,
and of the armed forces. And what does the National Institute for
Disaster Management do in all this? Nothing much, as the central
government has a crisis management committee to coordinate with the
state government.
It is not as if the central government has not provided help to Bihar:
the prime minister’s promised Rs1000crores, the armed forces are there
in strength, rescuing victims and dropping food to marooned people. But
what about the gigantic task of providing decent shelter, food, and
medicines? What about the equally huge task of uniting families which
have been separated by the floodwaters? Clearly that’s a nightmare
right now, because a fairly large number of victims of the flood have
chosen to stay marooned, coping as best they can, rather than face
what’s happening in the relief camps.
Helicopters are dropping food packets without stopping — which they
can, in the air — and the result is a terrible melee on the ground as
people push, shove and trample one another to get the packets. No
prizes for guessing what happens to the old, to women and little
children in all this. But to the authorities it all becomes part of
their statistics. So many packets of food dropped, so many people given
access to those packets, mission accomplished. But have any of them
gone back to see just what happened to all that food from the sky?
The camps themselves are, going by media reports, in terrible shape.
Drinking water is scarce, no one really knows who is getting what to
eat, where they’re sleeping, what the sanitation arrangements are.
There are reports that disease is now feared and there aren’t enough
medicines, or what’s worse, enough doctors.
There’s no use blaming the state government. No state government can be
expected to cope with such an enormous calamity where millions are in
need of relief, and will have to be rehabilitated soon. Which brings us
to the National Institute of Disaster Management. What on earth
possessed the government to set up an institute? Just consider its
mandate:
- To undertake research covering natural and human-induced disasters
with a multi-hazard approach;
- To work as a national resource centre for governments through
effective knowledge management and sharing of best ]practices;
- To professionalise disaster risk reduction and emergency management
in the neighbourhood by developing an independent cadre of
trained emergency and mitigation managers;
- To build working partnerships with the government, universities,
NGOs, corporate bodies and other institutes of eminence.
A sinecure, then, a means of distributing patronage by giving retired
officials comfortable berths, that’s all it is. Not, by any means, a
powerful central body with resources and
materials to counter the effects of calamities that one would have
expected, one that would have assisted beleaguered state governments.
As the Greeks put it, ‘Those whom the gods destroy they first make
mad.’ Or uncomprehending, looking for what they can get out of
calamities that visit us frequently.
All we can do is pray very hard.
The writer is former secretary, information and broadcasting ministry.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1188245
© 2005-2008 Diligent Media Corporation
Ltd.
