Life in Delhi

My life in Delhi has got into a clear routine now. I wake up at 5.00 am on most of the days, and at times if I am too tired wake up at 6.00. After a wash I work till 7.00 am by checking the mails and updates on social media. I have bath at 7.00, get ready for office and by 7.45 I am on road. I reach UNICEF Country Office by 8.00 am. I have my breakfast at the canteen and I'm on my desk at 8.30. Till noon it is work....meetings....discussions....At about 1.00 pm we walk down for lunch, usually a few minutes early to avoid the rush. Back to desk in about 40 minutes. Work continues. At about 2.30 often I feel so sleepy that I doze off on chair at times. In case I doze off it is for about 15 minutes. And then work continues till 6.45 pm. I wind up, and am out on street to return to the guest house where I stay. On reaching I have a bath and begin to relax by watching some comedy channel and news channels alternately. Sharp 8.30 pm I rush around the corner to a restaurant for dinner. My favorite at this restaurant is "baigan bhartha". Usually it is a full meal, which means 2 chappatis, a little rice, dal, and two vegetables. I tried non-veg at this restaurant, but was not too happy with the quality, and so I have settled down for occasional omlette or scrambled eggs. Back to room before 9.00 pm to catch up on talk shows on television. At times the laptop is once again switched on for some more work. Usually the day ends with a long telecon with Shubhra at about 11.00 pm. 

Though there may be some minor variations on different days, the regularity has given me confidence to work. At the atmosphere at the office is great as I am slowly getting to know more and more colleagues. Just one regret: being an operations person who was always found among people on field, the centrally air conditioned office that has a whole lot of facilities still looks like a cage at times. The satisfaction comes from the fact that my interventions go a long way to influence policies, programs and millions of lives positively.

From Desk to Changing Destinies

As Director of Social Welfare Institute in Raiganj, I was working directly with communities, toughing the lives of over 200,000 children, and thousands of families. One of the most important part of satisfaction was the employment I was able to generate for hundreds of families through various interventions and programs. In India, if one can do a great service, it is giving employment to another person. Many of those staff moved into better positions, and good number of them joined various low level government positions in health sector. 

In Kolkata, when I worked as State Inter Agency Coordinator (2009-2010) in the post-Cyclone Aila response, though not much of controls were with me in the response days, the information I processed and provided enabled reaching out to several deserving communities. I also focused on state level capacity building of humanitarian agencies. So, number of partnerships were developed to strengthen human capacity to respond to disasters. As State Emergency Response Coordinator with Core Group Polio Project, (2011-2013) again I got the opportunity to work in the thick of things, with services reaching out to the unreached children, specially those denied of vaccination by those who are supposed to protect the children: their own families. Managing partnerships, reaching out to over 200,000 children, with more than 300 staff engaged in the process was an amazing experience. 

The Uttarakhand experience in a sense was desk based work, leading a small team of highly qualified humanitarian workers who had lot more experience than I did. However, soon I knew why the UN Disaster Management Team (UNDMT) had placed me there. It was a whole lot of negotiations that were conducted patiently with various levels of government officials, designing and setting the course of action, clearing the paths for early recovery of communities through appropriate guidance, advice and advocacy in the Districts and State. Soon I found that we had achieved more than we had hoped for. We had built a new way of doing things! We had influenced the way services would be provided to hundreds and thousands of people who had been affected / impacted by the disaster of May 2013. It was an incredible experience. 

The experience of working on the Multi-Hazard Vulnerability Mapping (MHVM) project (2014-2015) was an unique experience in the seven months I was engaged with the project. Key outcomes: the name of the project had to be changed to increase acceptability at the government level, designed how the project needs to be implemented for better long term impact, and set the course of action through a government owned process. The Uttarakhand amd MHVM project experiences have increased my confidence in working with government, and my negotiation skills. I have learnt how to strike at the root without being too vocal in public. I have learned how to analyze systems and power structures, so that the interventions are truly owned by the stakeholders and give the maximum output.

Then I had the break from mid-Feb to mid-April break to welcome our son Rajarshi. I began working from 15 April at UNICEF India Country Office as Consultant - Disaster Risk Reduction. Highly desk based so far. If someone asks me what do I do, I say, " I am like the housemaid. I do whatever comes on my way, besides some regular tasks....". People laugh and wonder! As of now, the tasks are multi-fold. I prepare number of TORs for various positions and consultancies, attend some meetings, prepare several types of reports. Some of the key documents I reviewed and gave inputs on include: Government of India's policy document on Smart Cities (and prepared a brief and a presentation on the same); prepared a beautifully designed Risk Profile of Bihar State (albeit with limited data); and a document on School Safety.

Present tasks at hand besides making of TORs that don't seem to end, (a) preparation of a district level risk profile for all states of India along with two colleagues in UNDMT; (b) designing program on preventable disaster risks; and (c) planning for expanding program interventions in the country on DRR. One key problem: I am still not able to measure how many people would be positively impacted by what I do. It is only that information can satisfy my heart. 

2015 : Joys, Pains and Plans

2015 : The year started on hectic travels, unimaginably busy schedule wherever I was and the birth of Emmanuel Rajarshi on 23 March, besides the much needed house repairs that seem to be never ending. I also took a break from work from mid-Feb, to give some time to family and to manage other fronts. By the fact that I am sitting down to write a blog after six months since the last posting is an indicator of what I have been through. Leaving children and Shubhra back home has been the biggest pain, as I had to shift to Delhi in search of job in mid-April.

Somehow, my look for a job in Africa or elsewhere seem to be somehow eluding me. In spite of so much experience in disaster management, doesn't seem to get me far! Opportunity that came on the way to work in Nepal had to be sacrificed as I had just signed the contract a week before the massive earthquake struck the Himalayan country. 

Back in Delhi, I leave early - by 8.00 am to Unicef office, and I have my breakfast there in the canteen. Leaving early helps me beat the heat. My usual breakfast goes like this: either two idli or bread toast, along with a cup of coffee and half plate fruits (containing five or six types of cut fruits on a quarter plate). My lunch is around 1.00 pm, again at the canteen. If I can get out of the office by 4.30 pm, I leave office early to beat the traffic, and if I cannot, then I remain till 7.00 pm, by when autorickshaws are available back again. It is difficult to get autos on Lodhi road between 5.00 pm - 6.30 pm due to closing of offices in the area, and the autos come filled!

About my tasks in Delhi, I shall write in the next. For now, it is just the joy of working for a dream, pain of missing hearing "Appa" from Vasu, our daughter, and an eluding plan for a better legacy that I would like to leave behind.

Public Health : Not a Standard in Bihar

With my association with Multi Hazard Vulnerability Mapping Project supported by the UNICEF in the state of Bihar, for the first time I am staying the longest in that state. My previous stays here have been mostly for training purposes, which meant I had some clean place to stay and a bit of calmer environment on many occasions. But, now my stay in the suburban community has changed all that. I see piles of garbage all around, and people throwing out garbage with no remorse. On the other hand, I am yet to see a garbage van picking up garbage on any of the streets.  The Exhibition Road and Bailey road seem to be the only exceptions, with some level of cleanliness. Most others are stinking, in all its forms and essence. You also notice children and adults shitting all around, once you are not on main thoroughfares. 

And when it rains, I have seen the water turning into black and flooding the roads. I also noticed some of the ground floors of the high rise buildings remaining flooded. So, one needs to wade through filth to reach one's home, or God forbid, if one's house is in a low lying area in the city.

Unless the corporation wakes up to the perils of modernity, and takes up remedial measures immediately, soon the city will be gone. Public health is not a standard here. It is just a garbage to be thrown out on the street. Once the capital of ancient India is really gasping for breath, literally. 

N.B: When I go to buy milk or noodles, which are already packed in plastic, the shopkeepers warmly extend an additional plastic packet to carry even if I do not need them!  I have learned to take a bag with me. But why do the shopkeepers give away so much of useless plastic that is less than 40 micron thick, anyway?

Susceptibility and Consequential Vulnerability

As I continue to work on the Social Sector Plan for the most affected villages in five districts  of Uttarakhand, along with lots of inputs and preparatory works from my colleagues in the districts and in the State, I began to wonder about one thing. What are we really focusing on? Or rather, what are all the humanitarian agencies focusing on in their emergency response in Uttarakhand. As I kept pondering through these questions, in one of the daily mails that I share with my colleague (and mentor ) Sarbjit Singh Sahota of UNICEF, wrote " Response to Event Vulnerability will happen, but what about our response to Consequential Vulnerability?"

The people who were most vulnerable and highly exposed at the time of hazard striking them are dead and gone. Families have have lost their loved ones, bread winner, cattle, shops, valuables, almost everything ! The humanitarian agencies continue to respond with food baskets, clothes, temporary shelter, medical camps etc. There is an attempt to strengthen the emergency response system, the critical infrastructure and life line services which have been highly impacted in these districts. So, we are taking care of the "event vulnerability", i.e. people and resources who were vulnerable and have been affected by disaster are taken care of temporarily.

But what about Consequential Vulnerability -- vulnerability that is born of a disaster? People who were better off or in lower middle class, now have become poor. People who had land have now become landless and homeless as their houses and land were carried away. People who had a bread winner at home have become widows, father or motherless, orphans. People who could cultivate some grains have become paupers. Those who earned from shops and cattle have now come to seek asylum. 

The way we treat consequential vulnerabilities today will have an impact on event vulnerabilities and susceptibility of these people to disasters tomorrow.

End of a Saga

The Polio Emergency Response started in April 2011 by Core Group in West Bengal will come to an end on 5 May 2013. Dr. Roma Solomon the Director of Core Group Polio Project (CGPP), Mr. Jitendra Awale, Deputy Director of CGPP, Ms. Rina Dey, expert in Behavior Change Communication for CGPP, and Mr. Manojkumar, Data Management Officer of CGPP also are in Kolkata for a valedictory session. The session was organized at Hotel Indismart in Salt Lake with several dignitaries from Unicef, WHO, ADRA India and the partner organizations.

It is both time to thank one another and to appreciate the role of everyone. So, on 26 April, the team traveled to areas supported by Seva Kendra and Women’s Interlink Foundation, the two partners of CGPP where they met the community mobilizers and supervisors and interacted with them, appreciated them and thanked them for their wonderful task in bringing down resistance in most areas to zero levels and in some very hardcore areas under acceptable limits.

On 27^th and 28^th they spent the whole day at Bolpur, relaxing in our company, enjoying the warmth and love that we had to share with one another. On 29^th April, the valedictory session brought to fore the times and hardships the staff went through, the challenges in team building and the role each one played in strengthening emergency response. I had joined this team in April 2011 just for a period of 4 months. But then, the team in Delhi was so friendly and supportive, the task was challenging as the entire team of coordinators, supervisors and mobilizers were new to such response program, and it involved me to set up systems and procedures for networking, linkage with government, Unicef, WHO, Rotary, and managing the balance of relationship between partners. I enjoyed it….cherished it, and love it, as I became part of the CGPP family. CGPP too recognized me for the extra gifts I had by way of analytically looking at issues, programming and communication skills, besides the little knowledge on using technology for program management and monitoring.

Thank you friends for the wonderful support and love! Adieu everyone in the Polio Emergency Respones program. See you again!

Support in North Dinajpur

With the financial support of UNICEF, the North Dinajpur District Department of Health and Family Welfare has taken up a community mobilization program for increasing booth coverage for polio programs in six panchayats of Goalpukur I Block of North Dinajpur district. Center for Knowledge and Skills (CKS) is supporting the program with human resource and technical support. On behalf of CKS, Dr. Prabir Chatterjee is leading the team, with Mr. Lukman of CKS assisting him and six other persons have been engaged in the program so that the program is implemented properly. The program involves one week of active involvement of (a) health personnel in ensuring that the vaccine delivery is done properly and on time; (b) schools and children are mobilized to bring in other children to the  polio booth on Sunday 20, Jan 2013; (c) Awareness is created in community through children's rallies, influencer meetings, involvement of local government officials and elected representatives; (d) Churches and mosques in the area announce about the polio program and ask people to take the children for vaccination to the booth, and not wait for vaccinators to visit their homes; (e) increase visibility of the program through increased announcements through loudspeakers etc. We are happy to share couple of photos from the school rallies organized in two panchayats.

Best of Polio Rounds

Reports have come in! The polio vaccination round that started on 18 Nov, and extended till 24 Nov is the best of rounds so far in our working areas. More than 22,000 children have been vaccinated through the community mobilization activities of nearly 300 staff involved in the task. Resistance has come down from nearly 600 in last round and over 700 in previous round to 471 this month, and for the first time it is below 500! The children reporting not vaccinated due to reasons of sickness also came down from 757 in last round to 510.  Excellent job has been done through children's groups who were involved in bringing children for vaccination on booth day (the first day of vaccination drive) and high number of conversion of resistant families into accepting polio vaccine through health camps and excellent interpersonal communication skills.

Training of Doctors in Flood Preparedness

I must write about part of my experience while training four groups of doctors in the State of Bihar in flood disaster preparedness. The training had been organized by Unicef and the Disaster Management Institute of the Government of Bihar. The training support was given by RedR India, and I was part of the RedR India team. In the first two trainings in Supaul and Madhepura we had to go beyond the training module as I and my co-trainer also had to work on improving the training module and schedule to help it more useful for the other eight trainings to follow. My third training was at Darbhanga where the district health administration was sluggish in organizing the program, and so had to wrap up the program in just five hours of total work in the two days. Then six such trainings in six other districts followed in which I was not present. The last of the trainings was in the district of Katihar, where I joined my co-trainer Dr. Prabir Chatterjee who was also my co-trainer in Madhepura. In Katihar the doctors and health personnel were very much interested in the training and wanted to know more and more. But, unfortunately, some of the IEC materials, training tools and some organizational faults on the part of the district personnel ensured that the program was not a big success. 

Looking back, it was time for me to share some very interesting and personal moments with my co-trainers. Learn from them and learn to be a better health conscious person, as all my co-trainers were professionally medical doctors. Thank you Dr. Ravikant, Dr. Prabir and Dr. Sanjay 

In the Center of India

Although I have traveled passing through the city of Bhopal a few times, on 28 July I got the opportunity to travel there (where I will stay till 3 Aug morning) to give a training in Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Emergencies to mostly government officials of the State Government of Madhya Pradesh. The program is organized with support from Unicef. The journey from Kolkata by Jet Connect was on time, with a stop over at Raipur, and so eating up 4 hours for the short journey on an ATR flight. Bhopal is fast growing into a huge urban center. The arterial roads are wide, smooth and pretty easy to drive. The others are not bad either. I was put up at Amer Greens, a hotel on the outskirts of the city. The place is very beautiful as it is away from the noisy disturbing hurried life style of city. It is spread on a large area with plenty of light and space. The garden is well-maintained for the rainy season. Food was certainly good, although I found it to be a bit richer than I would like it to be. In the morning they give a well laid buffet breakfast. I also took to the gym so that I can burn some extra calories in the few days I am here. My co-trainer Mr. Pradip also joins me in the gym, and we work out together. It is also fun because we plan our sessions for the next day as we literally "sweat it out"!

It has been fun, relaxing and yet challenging to conduct the training of 25 senior officers in Disaster Risk Reduction with focus on WASH.

On the Shores of Digha

On 5 Dec morning I traveled from Bolpur to Digha via Durgapur, picking in the ABSK team on the way. We were traveling for a training of Block and District Coordinators of the Polio Eradication Project supported by UNICEF and CORE India, of which I am the State Emergency Response Coordinator. 


A very long and tiring journey followed as we traveled through Purulia and West Medinipur districts. The road between Durgapur and Kharagpur, and between Belda and Digha via Egra was extremely bad. We reached at 5.30 pm.  As I reached the trainer team and I had to sit down to plan for the rest of the days. 6th and 7th December went very quickly as we mazed through the training module. I had two sessions in which I shared my views on Strategic Planning and Working Together through two animated stories. It was very interesting for all.

On 6th evening we also managed to walk down to the sea shore that is so crowded even in this non-tourist season, The unkempt roads, the poorly lit, shabbily kept shops and eateries are miles from making this destination into a good tourist destination. The way back was worse! Our vehicle kept getting a flat tyre repeatedly. We had to stay at last in Kolkata on 7th night, and travel back on the early morning of 8th. 

Overall, the training went good. The journey wasn't.