gender differential paper IJCRB

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JUNE 2011
INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY RESEARCH IN BUSINESS VOL 3, NO 2
At least 73,000 people had died, another 70,000 had been severely injured or disabled
and over 2.8 million persons have been left without shelter. In addition, 600,000 houses,
6,298 schools and 796 health facilities were demolished. About 6,440 kilo meters roads were
damaged and 50-70% of the water supply, sanitation, telecommunication and power
infrastructure was rendered un-operational. (Pakistan 2006)
It is nearly impossible to figure out exact economic impact of earthquake 2005. In total,
about US$5.2 billion was estimated cost of earthquake; includes cost of relief provision to
victims, restoration of livelihood support and short, medium and long term reconstruction
(ADB and World Bank, 2005). The most immediate task was rescue of people trapped in
collapsed buildings and to transport them at safer places along with provision of relief to
survivors to save the lives and to secure the dignity of affected population (ERRA, Annual
Review 2005 to 2006).
The Government of Pakistan immediately realized the enormity of the task and
appealed to the international community for emergency assistance. The Government of
Pakistan and national & international agencies took immediate measures for rescue, relief
and reconstruction for 3.5 million affected people of NWFP and AJK.
Generally, donor agencies and the external sources prefer to channelize emergency
assistance to disaster victims through international and/or indigenous NGOs due to all
pervasive corruption and misappropriation of relief funds on the part of the Governments.
The government of Pakistan and participating slocal, national, and international nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) with the help of domestic and external sources initiated
massive rescue and relief activities in the area. (ERRA, Annual Review 2005 to 2006)
Both, government of Pakistan and NGOs played important role in relief distribution
and rehabilitation activities. Government of Pakistan established the central coordination
office for rescue and relief started to work at Prime Minister (PM) Secretariat immediately
after the earthquake. Federal Relief Commission was established on 10 th October 2005 to
mobilize all resources, to coordinate activities and to facilitate flow of relief goods (ERRA,
Annual Review 2005 to 2006).
The Federal Relief Commission (FRC) of Pakistan Government, Armed Forces, International
donors, UN agencies and local NGOs joined hands to undertake the huge operation for
delivering emergency relief against challenges such as mountainous terrain, distant and
difficult to access communities, changing weather conditions, resource constraint, and
overwhelming suffering of the people.
On March 31 st 2006, the Government of Pakistan officially ended the ‘Relief’ phase and the
Federal Relief Commission (FRC) was subsumed into Earthquake Reconstruction and
Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA). Government of Pakistan, NGOs and international nongovernmental
organizations (INGOs) performed different rescue, relief and rehabilitation
activities during the first year of the 2005 disaster. Relief provided by FRC with assistance
from foreign governments, INGOs, NGOs, individuals and corporate sponsors are
summarized in Table 1.
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