Disaster Recovery and the Road Ahead - IGNOU

in the rehabilitation programme has also ensured that the people’s concerns and needs are better
understood and incorporated in the plans. It has permitted the communities to develop a stake in
the rehabilitation process.
To act as an interface between the Government and various communities, many Community
Participation Consultants (CPCs) have been appointed. The CPCs have been involved in a wide
range of activities, from building a strong enabling presence in the field, demonstrating the Community
Participation process, building the capacities of the Government and Village Level Committees,
organizing massive information dissemination campaigns, as well as monitoring and assessing the
rehabilitation programme on an ongoing basis. The CPCs have been active in a cyclical process of
gathering people’s views on the various rehabilitation packages, clarifying issues of concern to them.
They have made periodic recommendations to the government and actively assisted the state authority
in conflict resolution in the villages.
Leading social organizations like the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Society for Promotion
of Area Resource Centres (SPARC), and Nari Prabodhan Manch (NPM) have been appointed as
Community Participation Consultants for the relocation villages, and for repairs and strengthening
programme.
The repair and strengthening programme is an explicit example of community based mitigation in a
post-disaster rehabilitation effort. The SPARC’s role in the Repairs and Strengthening (R&S)
programme has broadly been to facilitate, build and strengthen capabilities of all actors especially
the house owners and the village communities, and the integration of the community participation,
especially within the district and local administration.
GENDER SENSITIVITY
Orissa is a case in gender sensitization in disaster management. In Bhadrak District of Orissa, the
Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Programme has led to greater inclusion of women at the village
level. The traditional gender divide has been broken. Other such cases have been found in Saharanpur
District of Uttar Pradesh, where DRM Programme has reached out to women and girls in the
community by engaging the media in creating mass awareness on initiatives taken by women in the
district.
All women Self-Help Groups (SHGs) have emerged as an effective medium to create disaster
preparedness among the communities in the District of Nagapattinam. As a part of Government of
India and United Nations Development Programme’s (UNDP’s) Disaster Management Programme,
women volunteers of SHGs have been doing a lot of work in the area of community capacity
building in disaster preparedness.
AWARENESS GENERATION
Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) and various stakeholders that comprise
District Publicity Officer, Local Urban Bodies, representatives of educational institutions, Lions Club,
Rotary Club etc. have prepared slogans for Auto-rickshaws on earthquakes like ‘Bhukampratirodhak
Ghar Surakshit Ghar’. This initiative has gained good success in awareness generation on DRM.
The NSS Volunteers are active in Maharashtra as they carry out Information Education Communication
(IEC) activities on various social themes. Rajkot Municipal Corporation has developed a series of
IEC material in Gujarati language on earthquake preparedness and ten golden rules to protect
oneself from earthquakes for the community.
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