Bishnupada Sethi

Man is a social animal and places society above self.

This becomes more evident during a disaster.

We see spontaneous actions by volunteers who at times even risk their lives to help the distressed population.

They play multiple roles in evacuation, search, rescue, relief activities, shelter management and meeting several needs of the affected population.

During cyclone Fani, in May 2019, Odisha government undertook one great evacuation exercise of more than 1.5 million people to safe shelters within a period of few hours, which is a kind of record in the history of disaster management.

Such a herculean and flawless task was accomplished with the involvement of countless number of volunteers who assisted in planning, transportation, arranging logistics, ensuring safety & security of people and taking care of the vulnerable groups while augmenting the efforts of government functionaries.

Promoting volunteerism is one important goal that Odisha has aimed to achieve after the super cyclone- 1999.

Odisha’sDisaster Management Policy of 2005 envisages to “promote a spirit of volunteerism and develop a cadre of well trained volunteers whose services will be utilized during emergencies”.

It sees distinct roles for the volunteers belonging to Nehru Yuva Kendras, National Social Services, Scouts & Guides, National Cadet Corps and stakeholders within civil society.

Mitigation of risks and consequences of disasters in communities remain the avowed objectives of community volunteers.

The core functions played by the volunteers include management of effects of floods, storms, tsunami, cyclone, drought etc which the communities face from time to time with increased frequency in recent times. The community based volunteers are most suited for immediate response to disasters like tsunami, bush fire, earth quake, landslides, whirl wind, boat tragedy, highway accidents because of the very nature of these calamities.

The disaster managers are using the network of volunteers for various functions like disaster awareness, community resource mapping, preparation of disaster management plans, constitution of disaster response teams, advocacy for risk mitigations, in school safety preparedness programs and involving them in different activities like providing medical first aid including psychological first aid, care of special people, control of communicable disease, information education communication, nutrition management, safe water and sanitation etc.

During the time of disasters, we get spontaneous volunteers who respond to their inner call to help the fellow countrymen and women to alleviate their sufferings.

Many corporate volunteers including universities and business entities offer their staff, skill, resources and incident management support to the government.

Several NGOs, CBOs, Red Cross, NSS, NYK, NCC, Civil Defence mobilize various resources and try to reach out to the distressed people.

However, it is observed that while relief may reach some areas abundantly, some areas remain without assistance.

Proper coordination becomes a difficulty and a challenge to be addressed.

Many countries around the globe have devised methods to utilize the community spirited volunteers in disaster management.

One great example one could cite is about the New South Wales State Emergency Service (SES). A sixty year old emergency and rescue service organization is dedicated to assisting the community.

This organization believes that key to community safety and resilience is trained and equipped community based volunteers.

It provides emergency assistance to the people of New South Wales round the clock.

With 9,000 volunteers across the state, 730 vehicles, 380 boats, 320 staff it operates from 250 locations.

NSW SES Volunteers come from all walks of life, bringing with them many different skills, interests and backgrounds.

They are united by the purpose of supporting their communities in times of need.

Their major responsibilities are for flood and storm emergencies.

They also provide the majority of general rescue effort in the rural parts of the state in road accident rescue, vertical rescue, bush search and rescue, evidence searches and other forms of specialist rescue that may be required due to local threats.

Volunteers in a number of isolated communities have been trained as Community First Responders by the Ambulance Service of NSW. The organizations trained rescuers also support the full-time emergency services during major disasters.

Operating under an Inter-service Incident Management System, SES is organized into five zones, which have further been divided into clusters and then units (base level) with division of responsibilities and functions.

An effective organizational structure led by the commissioner has a proper reporting system from the unit commander to local commander (cluster) level, then to deputy commander and zone commander.

The vision of SES is to be the best volunteer emergency service in Australia.

A dedicated training directorate looks after the streamlined volunteer training. The volunteers are recruited, trained, equipped and retained because of the positive, empowering, fulfilling and rewarding experience they get through their successful community engagement.

The volunteers make the communities safer and resilient due to their continuous engagement, partnership and planning.

By focusing on the core roles, incident management, technology & innovation, flexibility, responding to the capability needs, SES has become a role model in using the energy of volunteers in disaster management.

At the times of disasters, many people feel sad for not being able to help the community because of lack of an opportunity though the disaster management organization would need people with different skill sets and in diverse locations for different functions.

Studies show that volunteering improves the mental health of people due to the social connectedness with community.

Volunteering can also be exciting for youth as they become part of something bigger than themself and they become better citizens.

It remains a challenge for the disaster management organization show they recruit, train; utilize volunteers in their day to day activities like it has been done in case of NSW- SES.

We have different community based organizations doing different roles including disaster management.

Having a dedicated community based emergency response system may be of immense help in a country like India which see multiple disasters over the vast territory.

The community based local units of volunteers are best suited to respond local disasters which often do not get proper attention or get delayed response like whirl wind, drowning, road accident, lightning accident, snake bite, wild life matters.

The case study of SES offers few lessons to us for according due place to the volunteers in disaster management Organizations in a formal manner to mitigate the community risks.

*The author is principal Secretary, the department of Revenue and disaster management, government of Odisha. The opinions expressed are personal.

Multi-pronged community level approach may erase psychological scars left by the Pandemic, feels Bishnupada Sethi

Any disaster evokes painful emotions in human beings and the degrees vary depending upon the severity, duration and exposure to the calamity.

The best disaster management practices adopt multi-dimensional, community based approaches to address the emotional needs of the affected population.

When a disaster strikes, there is thorough scrutiny of the situation and official response mechanism.

Often a surge in relief activities is seen. Visits by VVIPs lead to several announcements of assistance for the affected people.

Driven by altruistic motives, many NGOs, CBOs and individuals come to the aid of affected people.

The relief distribution is a very important aspect of disaster management, aimed at giving immediate assistance to the affected people for the loss of their assets and livelihood.

This phase lasts for about two to three months followed by the reconstruction phase which may continue up to three years depending upon the extent of damages.

Rebuilding of houses, livelihood like agriculture and livestock, infrastructure are time taking processes and hence do not get continued media attention.

The administration may have to sort out other priorities in the meantime. People complain about delays, discriminations and embezzlement.

Return to normal life is not easy due to disillusionment, and this impacts the mental health of the individual and the community.

People affected in a disaster face myriad problems for their survival which leads to depression, anxieties, sleeping disorders and post-traumatic stress. Can the disaster managers ignore these mental health issues?

Odisha super cyclone-1999 was a watershed as far as disaster management in the country is concerned.

Though the severity and impact were not unprecedented in the country, experts believed those could have been reduced if the preparations were optimal in terms of technological and economic progress of the country at that point of time.

However, many initiatives and experiments were undertaken for the first time in the country by the government in collaboration with many partners.

The cyclone had resulted in more than 10,000 human casualties with women and children becoming the worst sufferers. Millions of people were rendered homeless, struggling to stay alive.

For several days the worst affected ones remained confused, lonely and highly traumatised.

The disaster managers gave due attention to the widows and orphans to save them from trafficking.

They set up Mamata Gruhas, community homes to provide food, clothing, education, health services, and love & affection.

The volunteers took care of 44 such homes accommodating 801 orphans, 638 widows and 201 old people and facilitated a family integration process by identifying families, mainly the near and distant relatives, with whom the orphans and widows could be rehabilitated.

But for this unique community based initiatives, many vulnerable people wouldn’thave the opportunity to live a dignified life.

Any disaster affects the poorest of the poor in the severest way. Similarly, children, elderly people, differently-abled, migrant labourers, street vendors, homeless people need maximum attention.

Identifying and targeting the high risk people to address their psychological needs remain an all time challenge.

Government orders for lockdown on account of Covid-19 created extreme kind of disturbing emotions in people during the month of March 2020.

In urban areas, it led to panic-buying and stockpiling of medicines, portable oxygen cylinders, nebulisers, sanitizers, masks, food items, withdrawal of cash from bank amongst the well-educated and informed people.

They feared that nothing would be available in the market for months, and so played safe. Restrictions on physical movement, changes in life style, uncertainties, loss of job and income created a deep psychological scar in people unlike in any other disaster in the past.

A number of families suffered emotionally due to separation from their children, relatives staying outside, illness and fear.

An overdose of negative news and prospects of a gloomy future led to anxiety, insomnia, depression, fear of infection and death, exacerbating the traumatic experiences for the people.

Considering the many challenges disaster managers across the country take several measures such as designing and communicating appropriate social media and news contents to make the community confident and stress free.

Providing reliefs to the vulnerable population and enhancing wage earning opportunities keep raising the hopes and aspirations of the people.

A number of activities is initiated to build the community level solidarity at the Gram Panchayat and village levels.

Use of information technology for awareness building about the virus has led to reliance on the government source of information for action at all level.

Experts extend services to the needy people through help lines.

The older population, health workers, adults with pre-existing conditions, those living in precarious domestic situations are likely to feel the maximum stress and need due attention.

Different social settings are likely to put people on account of Covid-19 in varied mental health conditions.

Our leaderships are trying their best to remove any kind of stigma associated with the disease or any discrimination against any community to fight the side effects of the disease.

The community level workers and the front line government machineries are maximizing their efforts to connect people, keep them busy, engage in physical activities, and advocating a daily routine so that people lead a stress free life.

Availability of police helpline against domestic violence and for the assistance of elderly population is a noble initiative and a cherished one.

It is desirable to have socio-culturally appropriate processes and focussed interventions including organising religion specific death rituals to deal with the psychological stress as a part of disaster management.

As witnessed, different measures have been adopted in the country in the fight against Covid-19 to address the mental health needs of the affected people including Yoga and meditation, prayers, relaxation and spiritual interventions, online counselling, mental health clinics etc.whichneed documentation.

It will be beneficial if the disaster management authorities took proper steps to document the community based processes and programs and used those to train the relief workers community in order to mitigate the psychological issues.

*The author is Principal Secretary, Department of Revenue and Disaster management , Government of Odisha . The opinions expressed are personal.

“noting to eat nothing to wear

boundless is the anguish

who indeed can bear to see such misery

among the world’s creature

let my soul be condemned to hell

but the Universe be redeemed”

The above translated stanza from the writings of world famous saint- poet Bhim Bhoi (1850-95) reflects his expression of anguish over the ravages of famine in 1966.

One million people died in the year 1966. In the next two years, another 4 to 5 million perished due to starvation in Odisha following thenatural disasters.

Famine during British Rule is a very well researched topic.

Historians estimate that about 60 million people must have died during British time due to recurrent famines on account of natural disasters and they blame the foreigners for their misrule and insensitivities.

They allowed 10 million people to die in the Bengal famine of 1770, which was about one third of the population of the region.

Drought, cyclones, policy failures and an economy predominantly characterised by rain-fed agriculture caused mass deaths.

Undemocratic political, economic and social structure, inequalities in food distribution, inadequate transportation, and lack of deployment of resources to combat famines allowed such misfortunes to hit the poor Indians very frequently.

Way back in 70s, after my village in the coastal Odisha was ravaged by a cyclone, I saw as a child how the stock of rice vanished from the local market and price doubled.

The relief was meagre and came many days after, by way of distribution of few kilograms of rice which was old, broken, brittle, emittingfoul smell and not so suitable for human consumption.

The same rice also was found in the open market indicating widespread leakages.

Most of the people went hungry for several days.Cyclones and floods had led to loss of crops and caused devastation in the local economy.

People would mortgage their land, ornaments, animals, utensils to the money lenders for few bags of rice.

Often it led to transfer of land from the poor farmers making them wage earners or bonded labourers.

Migration became more visible after a calamity. Drop outs from schools and many other manifestations of the adverse effects of a natural disaster went on for several years unmitigated.

In contrast, the situation now has changed much for better.

Huge investment in agriculture, research on resilient and short duration varieties, expansion of opportunities for additional income through dairy, animal husbandry, poultry, fishery have increased the production and productivity in the agrarian sector.

Vast expansion of road/ rail network, communication, transportation, export and import, storage and warehousing, market infrastructure makes the disaster management easier.Great systemic improvement has been made over the years.

In our state, great attention is given to mitigate hunger issues in the aftermath of a disaster.

Before the onset of calamity season, vulnerable areas are identified for pre-stocking of commodities.

Distribution of PDS commodities is done for few months in advance to avoid any possible hardship.

As soon as the situation improves in case of a disaster like cyclone or flood or it is possible, distribution of dry food, cooked meal, rice, money, ration to the beneficiaries under various schemes, payment of pensions, several other reliefs as announced by the government are done in very meticulous way.

The local Sarpanches, the management of various shelters have been delegated authorities to feed the vulnerable population for as many days as the situation demands.

As has been seen during last cyclones and floods, several NGOs and civil society organisations poured in relief.

After the cyclones, community kitchens were run for several days and not a single case of hunger was reported fromthe distressed people.

Covid-19 pandemic is mother of all disasters and has affected almost all countries and put at risk the highest number of people in the history of mankind.

Most unfortunately, no one knows how soon the normalcy will be restored.

If the sufferings continue for more than a year or two, besides bringing untold miseries to the global economy it will increase the number of hungry people.

One estimate says that 265 million people are at the risk of going hungry during 2020 though there is enough to feed everyone. We witness large scale disruptions in the food supply chain.

The harvests are going waste due to non availability of labour and not reaching the local markets due to shut down.

Because of demand slump, meat processing plants are shut down and dumping of milk is witnessed.

Farmers have difficulties to get seed, fertilizers and other inputs due to transportation problems.

Export and import problems have their cascading effects.

It is expected that 195 million people will have job loss and global economy will shrink by 5%. The people will change their food baskets because of lower income.

The daily wage workers, people living in conflict zones, refugee camps in countries like Nigeria, South Sudan, Syria, Yemen etc. and the poorest of poor will carry the maximum risk of hunger.

The latest FAO Food Price Index has dropped to a seven month low, showing the effects of Covid- 19.

Due to reduced requirement from feed and bio fuel sector, maize demand has weakened making the maize farmers very vulnerable.

For example, maize price has dropped from Rs.1800 per quintal in February to Rs.1100 per quintal in March this year in the state of Karnataka.

The international vegetable oil price is at 10 months low. Similarly, the indices for dairy, meat prices are also down showing the problems of global export and import. As a result, the farmers are going to suffer immensely.

The great worry is how long the crisis will prevail and how will it impact the economy.

The most important matter is about ourfood security.

As the export and import continue to be impacted in uncertain manner, there is a great challenge to ensure that sufficient food is available and equitably distributed to our countrymen and no one goes hungry.

*The author is Principal Secretary, Department of Revenue and Disaster management , Government of Odisha . The opinions expressed are personal.