Introduction

India has been traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters on account of its unique geo-climatic conditions. Floods, droughts, cyclones, earthquakes and landslides have been recurrent phenomena. At times, the same area is subjected to floods and drought situation in successive seasons or years. While not all natural calamities can be predicted and prevented, a state of preparedness and ability to respond quickly to a natural calamity can considerably mitigate loss of life and property and the human suffering and restore normalcy at the earliest. It is, therefore, of paramount importance that a plan of action for dealing with contingencies that arise in the wake of natural calamities is formulated and periodically updated. Timely Management of disaster reduces human sufferings and economic losses caused by natural and technological disasters. In this paper an attempt is made to highlight some of the grey areas that exist as far as disaster management in India is concerned. It also discusses prevention measures that can help in better recovery from such disasters.

Key Concerns of Disaster Management

Lack of seriousness about the issue: In number of cases it is seen that people or govt. is generally non-serious about the issue before the disaster actually happens. Countless times, it happens that people are living in such areas which are not recommended technically because the building is very old and it should be demolished, or the adequate safety measures have not been taken at the time of construction. Even sometimes warnings are given to the residents of particular area by the environmentalists about the forecast of occurrence of natural calamity but the people do not take it seriously until such incidents actually occurs. Natural disasters impart lessons at a very high cost of life and property. But if those lessons do not lead to learning and knowledge generation then it is a very heavy cost to bear. This lack of learning from the past hurts most at the recurrence of disasters. The earthquake in Gujarat (26th January 2001, an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude on Richter scale struck Gujarat, India, with its epicentre in Kutch, causing destruction of three towns and death of more than 20,000 people) and the subsequent chaos was an indicator of how crucial disaster planning is to manage relief and rehabilitation during disasters. The country will have to pay more attention towards creating public awareness and preparedness in respect of people living in known disaster prone areas.

Lack of strategic direction: Another important key concern is "lack of strategic direction" which means although people or Govt. is actually aware about the issue but they don't know how to strategically deal it. There is a plethora of literature describing the inappropriate actions taken to manage past disasters. Many of the same mismanagement problems tend to recur. Few examples of such mismanagement are:

· Physicians and nurses have been sent into disaster areas in numbers far in excess of actual need.

· Medical and paramedical personnel have often been hampered by the lack of the specific supplies they need to apply their skills to the disaster situation.

· In some disasters, available supplies have not been inventoried until well after the disaster, resulting in the importation of material which is used or needed.

Inadequate funds and infrastructure to handle disaster: Once the disaster occurs in a particular area or a region, it needs lots of funds and building of infrastructure to minimize the sufferings of the victims of disaster and rehabilitate them. But in case of India or other developing /underdeveloped countries, which are generally the victims of such disasters, funds are the measure problem. Even if funds are generated with the help of NGO's/ International assistance/people/Govt. , number of times funds are generally stuck in between and do not reach to the deprived one. Another important issue here is victims not only need food and shelter for a time being but they need permanent settlement. They need employment which can make them self dependant and that is the only way of solving their problem

Lack of co ordination of different services and departments: At the time of disaster, the coordination among different services and departments are very important. In order to implement the policies effectively and for the fast recovery from disaster it is very essential that all the departments should work as a single unit. But in most of the cases, it is found that co ordination among various departments and agencies are very poor. It must have Coordination with the local community, civil defense, army, police, fire brigade and with various governmental and non-governmental bodies including voluntary organizations.

Lack of planning and implementation: In order to come out of the disaster and make the things at place as previous, proper planning and implementation is needed. Planning involves such issues as "how to deal with the issue, "what all measures should be taken to solve the problem as quickly as possible" etc. But the planning part has no use if the proper implementation of such planning is not done. Therefore, planning and implementation is very much required in order to deal with a disaster or a calamity.

Due to lack of planning and implementation, the timely help that poured in from all over the world could not be utilized properly and in time. The emergency medical services (EMS) systems though are existing in some metropolitan cities are ill organized and weak as is evident from past experiences of mass casualties of bomb blasts (BSE - Mumbai), earthquakes (Maharashtra & Gujarat) and communal violence (Gujarat).

Lack of knowledge about the issue: Most serious key concern about the disaster is "Lack of Knowledge about the issue". If the proper knowledge about the disaster management will not be there then it will not only be difficult but impossible to deal with the issue. Because any disaster requires fast and expert handling of the issue. Poorly planned development can turn a recurring natural phenomenon into a human & economic disaster. Allowing dense populations on a floodplain or permitting poor or un-enforced building codes in earthquake zones is as likely as a natural event to cause casualties and losses. Similarly, allowing the degradation of natural resources increases the risk of disaster. Awareness generation is a key prerequisite for prevention, mitigation and preparedness by the community. Existing institutions like press, radio, television should be used extensively for generating awareness..The need of the hour is to make people aware about the issue, train them and make them expert professional in dealing with disaster. Timely management of disaster only helps in recovery from such traumatic incidents.

Disaster Prevention Measures

Infrastructure development: The entire disaster mitigation game plan must necessarily be anchored to frontline research and development in a holistic mode. State-of-the art technologies available worldwide need to be made available in India for up gradation of the disaster management system; at the same time, dedicated research activities should be encouraged, in all frontier areas related to disasters like biological, space applications, information technology, nuclear radiation etc., for a continuous flow of high quality basic information for sound disaster management planning,

Institutional arrangement: Institutional arrangements for disaster response are the heart of disaster management systems. There is no dearth of personnel, both civilian and military, experienced in handling situations arising out of natural disasters. However, there certainly is a pressing need for improvement and strengthening of existing institutional arrangements and systems in this regard to make the initial response to a disaster more effective and professional. Most of the resources and expertise needed already exist with the Government. What needs to be streamlined is how they should be integrated, trained and deployed. Some of the areas where improvement is urgently needed are:

a) Integrated planning for disasters, including the integration of relevant Armed Forces formations into disaster management planning at all levels from District to State and Central Government.

b) Setting up of a modern, permanent national command centre or operations room, with redundant communications and data links to all State capitals.

c) Establishment of a national stand by, quick reaction team composed of experienced professionals, both military and civilian, drawn from Central and State Government staff to respond immediately by flying in a matter of hours to the locations when a disaster strikes.

d) Creation of urban search and rescue capacity at all levels, by establishing a fully equipped Search and Rescue unit, as part of the fire service in all State capitals, with trained staff and modern equipment.

e) Media policy geared to handling the growing phenomenon of real time television reporting, which generates enormous political pressures on a government to respond rapidly and efficiently.

f) Closer interface with and better understanding of the international system for disaster response, and putting in place, systems for dealing with international assistance once it comes in e.g., customs, immigration, foreign policy implications etc. A greater appreciation is needed of the speed and automation of modern international response to a natural disaster. Closer interaction is required between of the Ministry of External Affairs and the relevant inter-national agencies concerned with disaster response.

h) Modern unified legislation for disaster management. In view of the current division of responsibilities between the State and Central Government into state, central and concurrent lists, there is a need to create a body of legislation dealing with response to natural disasters and other emergencies, clearly delineating responsibilities and powers of each entity and specifying what powers or actions would need to be triggered on declaration of a disaster by the Government of India or a State Government. This legislation should also incorporate the current legislation dealing with chemical emergencies that has been created by the Ministry of Environment so that all emergencies are dealt with under one law. The legislation should include clear definitions of what constitutes a disaster at a national level.

Education and training on disaster management: Under the Government of India [GOI] and United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], Disaster Risk Management Programme [2002 - 2007] special emphasis has been laid on preparing the communities to face various hazards by generating awareness and increasing the capacity of various stakeholders to counter the adverse affects of disasters through integration of disaster mitigation into development planning, conducting special training for the disaster management personnel, creating public awareness India being prone to various disasters it is needless to emphasize the important role that educationalist and students can play in creating awareness in communities. Schoolteachers and children can become model disaster managers for a community that has faced a severe disaster in the recent past. They have done appreciable work in generating awareness, identifying the vulnerabilities, coping with them and working together as a team to reduce the impact of the disasters on the community. Truly, these are examples that reiterate the strong social responsibility that the institution as a school carries with it.

Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has successfully introduced Disaster Management as a frontline curriculum for class VIII and Class IX and proposed for class X in 2005 - 2006 in all the school board and has already imparted training to more than 1000 teachers throughout the country.

Networking policy makers, professionals, specialists, volunteers, activists and representatives of various government bodies as well as NGOs and international voluntary organizations: NGOs and PFs have to play a major role in bringing concerns related to risk management on to the national agenda and in promoting a shift of focus from mere relief response to disaster mitigation and preparedness. Agencies have to work well with local government and trend has to be set for collaborative work in disaster mitigation and preparedness. The government has to accept them as major partners in these tasks. The need for the application of international standards has been evolving over the last decade. Consistency is needed not just in how we respond, but in when we respond. The action plans should include:

(1) Development of positions of standards for management, health and public health, education and training, research, psychosocial aspects, and disaster plans

(2) Advocating for actions and task forces to deal with evolving and emerging disasters, terrorism, landmines, and emerging infections

(3) Working proactively to advocate and facilitate the multidisciplinary and multiorganisational requirements for disaster management and

(4) Developing a resource list of interdisciplinary institutions and activities organized by country and topics including the design and maintenance of a website proactively. Measures to be taken after occurrence of Disaster:

Step by step process:

Step 1: Arrange food and shelter for victims of disaster: In Post disaster phase, everything gets destroyed & damaged and the victims nor has food to eat or money to buy it neither a shelter to cover their heads. Those who survived out of the disaster live more miserable life and their sufferings are much higher than those who died in the disaster. When the disaster has made houses uninhabitable and there has been no evacuation of the area, temporary shelter must be arranged for those affected, for those who generally prefer to remain on the spot, in or near their property. It may happen that the population settles all over the place (waste ground, gardens, parks, squares, parking areas, sports grounds, etc), using anything that comes to hand (planks, plastics, tents, cars, containers, boats, railway wagons, buildings under construction, schools, public buildings, etc.). The sanitary situation may then rapidly deteriorate and it becomes very difficult to assess requirements.

Therefore, the first & foremost responsibility of govt. is to make arrangements of the food and shelter for the sufferers and it should ensure that

1. There are adequate amounts of safe drinking water, basic sanitation facilities, disposal of excreta, waste water and solid wastes and adequate shelter

2. Provide food protection measures, establishing or continuing vector control measures, and promoting personal hygiene

Communities exposed to the risk of disaster (and those that propose to give shelter to displaced persons) should select sites for temporary shelter (before a disaster strikes) and carry out the necessary preparatory work. The sites chosen for erecting shelters should be:

· Flood-proof, above high-water level,

· Preferably on a gentle slope to facilitate rainwater and waste water drainage,

· Not too close to the water table; otherwise the ground could become marshy in the rainy season,

· Protected against landslides and subsidence,

· Easily accessible, not far from the centre of the population,

· At a higher level than waste tips,

· Downstream from sources of drinking water.

(B) Availability of cooking, feeding and medical help in each shelter: Once the arrangement of shelter is been made than in each shelter their must be some arrangement for cooking, feeding and medical help. Some raw food in the form of flour, rice, pulses etc should be provided in addition to fuel for cooking. So that the victims become independent and they can at least cook for them if the ready food is not available or delayed. It has been seen that in disaster events, major national and international efforts are focused on giving food supplies to disaster-affected persons. However, in the absence of adequate cooking fuel these supplies do not help survivors, and quite a substantial amount gets spoiled. Thus, supply of stoves, which can run on both diesel and kerosene or solar cookers, may be useful. Instead of using kerosene or wood for burning bodies, it can be saved as a cooking fuel. Next thing which is very crucial is the availability of medical facility in each shelter because there is huge possibility of the danger of epidemics or other disease which may be water, soil or air borne. Trained Doctors as well as Nurses should be available for 24 hours in disaster affected area.The local health personnel should prepare periodic reports (weekly at the outset, then monthly) summarizing from the daily information collected bearing the following issues:

· The composition of the community: It is important to know the number and age-structure of the local population in order to adapt health activity programs accordingly and to assess requirements. Since this number keeps changing, the data must be updated periodically.

· The number and type of health personnel available, including local and volunteers from elsewhere.

· The causes of death, which is an important indicator for assessing the health situation.

· The cases that could not be dealt with on the spot and the reasons behind the decision to evacuate.

· The establishments to which people have been evacuated: this makes it possible to adapt the data received from the intermediate level so as to make rational use of support structures and specialized centres.

· The symptoms and diseases seen by the local health team: this indicates the disease pattern that is developing and the number of people affected.

· The programs and activities under way: this enables the intermediate level to take into account what the local team has already undertaken and to give the team indications on how to adapt its activities to the epidemiological forecasts made at intermediate level and in accordance with the evolution of the health situation in the whole of the disaster area.

Step 2: Reconstruction of House and Relocation of victims of Disaster

(A) Reconstruction of house of victims, if possible: Next important step is reconstruction of houses for the sufferers of the disaster. If possible, govt. should build the houses for victims to permanently settle them. Because they have lost everything in the disaster and they don't have money to buy the food and other essential things. For them making a house will be an impossible thing. Therefore Govt. should arrange for them some area where separate houses could be built in accordance with the available funds and resources.

(B) Relocation of victims to some other places: If it is not possible to construct the houses for the victims of disaster than they should be provided some sort of help in the form of interest free loan, or land at concessional rates etc., to settle down in new areas. Govt. should allocate a piece of land to each family so that they can make their arrangements at that place.

Step 3: Look for available employment opportunities: The arrangement for shelter and food will have no meaning in long run if the victims will not get employment. For such victims whose occupation get destroyed or damaged in the disaster, for them it is very essential that govt. should think of providing employment opportunities.

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Author is an MBA in International Business and is working as a Lecturer (Management Studies) with Jamia Hamdard (Deemed University), New Delhi.