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. 

Coordination Lesson from Uttarakhand

27 Aug 2014 : Today I was in Delhi to attend the United Nations Disaster Management Team (UNDMT) organized workshop on Uttarakhand Recovery Action - Lessons Learned. Since I was the State team leader for UNDMT, I got to do a presentation. I made sure that the presentation is not a regular one with too many points or writings, but that it had ample pictures that explained the status of my own experience. So, for those who would view the presentation in PDF form, it may not make much sense...but as part of presentation, it was all fun and learning, and the presentation was appreciated by one and all. The total presentation was completed in 11 minutes. Some of the photos used in the presentation have been downloaded from the Google global search.

The presentation may be downloaded or viewed at Puthumai - Uttarakhand Presentation

Marking of a Milestone

The week starting from 17^th was really a busy one, as a UN team was scheduled to visit and understand how the UN Disaster Management Team (UNDMT) that I lead at the State of Uttarakhand has performed over the last eight months. Number of meetings had to be fixed with several senior officers and a separate larger meeting with NGO and Corporate representatives. The team arrived on 19 Feb noon and there were eight meetings scheduled for the day with the six member UN team divided into two sub-groups. When the day was over at 7.30 pm, it brought me so much of satisfaction as almost every officer, NGO and Corporate with whom the UN team interacted spoke about the great support they have received by way of coordination, information, quality and several additional supports. And doing it under a single umbrella  of UNDMT is again the biggest gain! The UN Team delightedly gave us a well laid out banquet at The Kalsang, a Tibetan restaurant on Rajpur road that gives some wonderful dishes from Tibet, Nepal, China, Japan and Korea. On 20^th morning, we had a totally internal meeting between the UN team and me along with all the team members. The meeting went off well and at the end everyone expressed satisfaction over the way the UNDMT support has moved forward, and the new benchmarks set by the team. The UNDMT mission in Uttarakhand is expected to be completed on 31 March 2014.

Kudos to all the team members!

Never Ending Journey

14 Feb 2014 : Both me and Dr. Mathur left Uttarkashi at noon as we were warned by the District Disaster Management Officer that anytime the roads might close as landslides have begun in some places. So, were rushing to get out. We were told that we should travel through Chamba and Rishikesh, a much longer route in comparison to Musoorie, which is the shorter route to Dehradun. In about 20 kilometers we crossed Dunda and our ordeals began. Couple of landslides had just begun and we escaped them carefully.  As we crossed what is known as Dharasu Bend, Dr. Mathur told me that the worst is over – and we are now free to travel! But that was not to be so!

Just three of kilometers ahead of us at a place called Nalpaani, a landslide from a high mountain had begun almost vertically, and it had thrown much of dirt and was throwing down small rocks. One of the vehicles had damaged its windows. As more vehicles waited, we too began to wait. When for a few minutes the rains seem to withhold, the policemen who had a mini police station next to the location let first the vehicles from the lower hills to climb up towards Uttarkashi. (Did you read it correct? Yes, they let more vehicles to climb up the hill when the landslides were actually blocking the roads.) Once all vehicles from the lower hills had crossed into the upper hills, crossing past us, now it was our turn to move ahead to safety—but then came the shocker!  In line of vehicles was a loaded truck that was standing in front. With much of the slush from the active landslide already having filled most part of the road, the truck was trying to cross it. I was wondering why the police is allowing this to happen. By the time even my thinking was over, the truck had already got stuck in the slush and now it cannot be taken out! We returned back to Dharasu Bend where we had hot rice and fish curry – which was much of the solace against the cold blowing rain. We went back to Nalpaani hoping that the truck will be taken out. Hei, there is a huge earthmover that can be utilized to pull out the truck. No, it cannot be used. Reason: the earthmover had no fuel! Comedy of errors???

Attempt to pull the truck hadn’t succeeded till 5.45 pm, and it was getting dark. We began to look for a place to stay for the night. A little guest house at the Nalpaani and a smaller one at Dharasu Bend were already full with stranded people from couple of buses and private vehicles like ours. People suggested that we travel to Brahmakhal, about 15 kilometers from Dharasu Bend and leave for Dehradun the next morning through Badkot, an alternate route. So, we climbed to Brahmakhal and stayed at Hotel Dhruv for the night, after having some chapatti and vegetables for dinner.

Photo taken from outside my room of our hotel

As we woke up on 15^th morning, a Saturday, we were welcomed by four inches of snow and the snowfall continued till 10.00 am. We had been badly stuck in the snows. Once the roads got better with the snow melting and people voluntarily clearing part of the roads, we took the risk of going back to Dharasu bend, as the previously planned route to Badkot had totally been closed with over 3 feet of snowfall in the higher ridges that we would otherwise have taken. We were happy by then that the rains had stopped and the roads will be opened at Nalpaani. But to our dismay, just about a mile before we reached the Dharasu Bend, the road we had taken the previous night, had closed with fall of huge rocks and boulders. Now that is what destiny would have it!

We called up few officials hoping that the road would be cleared. But nothing was happening. Meanwhile we walked down to Dharasu Bend, took lunch, carried some lunch for the driver, and then asked him to go back if the roads don’t open by 5.00 pm so that he can stay with the vehicle at Brahmakhal in a safer environment. Both me and Mr. Mathur walked and crossed the Nalpaani and another landslide about a kilometer from there, and then took a jeep to Chiniyalisaur. I decided to stay that night in Chiniyalisaur, and not take the risk of traveling late at night through the mountains to Dehradun.

Next morning at 11.00 am, the driver along with the vehicle came after all the roads were opened, and then I traveled to Dehradun and reached at 5.45 pm – dead tired. By the way: what or whom should I blame for the ordeal? The nature’s fury?  My luck? The policemen who did not follow proper order in passing vehicles? The journey that should have taken just six hours turned out to be a terror of 54 hours.

In the midst of Children

On 12 Feb I traveled in the afternoon from Dehradun to Uttarkashi. Since it was already late I preferred to stay at Chiniyalisaur, a small and beautiful town en route. I also took the opportunity to visit Mary Mata School, a high school that imbibes Christian values among students. Fr. Joey invited me to stay on that night as it was already late and in any case it would not have made much sense to travel to Uttarkashi as I was to visit next morning Dunda which is closer from Chiniyalisaur than Uttarkashi.  We  took a walk to the Officers’ Recreation Room where some boys were playing table tennis. Boy! I too started playing table tennis after 15 years….! The boys in their late teens and early twenties were playing very slow, and I told them how the game must be played faster, and I played faster! I ended up losing the first game at 13-21, the second I lost at 19-21, and the third I won at 21-14! Impressive! The boys appreciated that at my age I had the power to play the game after a decade and a half.

On 13^th I spent the whole day in several field visits and meetings – and the height of the day was the visit to Gunalgaon village supported by Mata Amritanandamayi Math Trust (MAMT) where I spent some time at the Anganwadi (ICDS center) with 3 – 5 year olds checking how the education and health services are met for these children. A few of those children were very talkative and started climbing on me, sitting on my lap… I took the opportunity to check if the children are able to recognize the Tabs that  MAMT has provided to the anganwadi for educational purposes. I also asked the teacher to demonstrate how she teaches the children. There were issues in the way she was teaching. I took those issues up with the MAMT volunteers who were accompanying me.

On 14^th morning I woke up to heavy rainfall lashing through the mountains. It had turned to be extremely cold in comparison to the previous day. Luckily, I did not have to walk out for breakfast, as the hotel where I was staying did not serve food. A friend, Mr. Stephen was kind enough to bring some homemade parathas and tea for me and Dr. P.D.Mathur who heads the coordination efforts in the district. And thus began the ordeal of a journey that lasted from 6 hours to 54 hours!

Super Week

The last week has been one of the most hectic weeks I had in terms of networking, organizing and analysis. The week started with organizing for some high profile visits that are due in mid-February. On 4 Feb there is a Coordination Meeting to be organized between more than 12 Government departments involved in livelihood enhancement and civil society organizations engaged in livelihood and economic recovery in the state. There was also a visit for couple of days by Mr. Vijay K who is documenting the involvement and impact of UNDMT in Uttarakhand. And finally, being end of the month, as the reports started flowing in, doing a lot of data analysis. On an average I was writing 20 mails and was receiving about 35 mails in the official ID for Uttarakhand that I use, besides the scores of mails that I get in my personal ID. 

It was also a week where I could feel that things are moving much faster that I can imagine in few sectors as work has started getting implemented by various organizations, and good number of activities are getting completed. Oh yes, the much awaited news (though I would have personally preferred this to happen in April or May after the national elections) came that the Chief Minister of the state has resigned, and the new Chief Minister took charge on Saturday, 1 Feb 2014 evening. This may have further implications as some officials may get transferred, which may be for good or worse, but will take time to get the ball rolling. 

To top it all, I also got to meet one of my teammates : Mr. Praveen Pawar. He is an amazing person....we always make fun of him asking him to stand the elections from Rudraprayag, and he is sure to win! Not just the officials and civil society know him, even the community has begun to recognize him. He is one damn good guy I have in the team. As we spent the morning together, he had some serious questions that kept lingering on - which certainly had to be answered by himself to himself. I was able to help him and get to know himself better. And that made me feel so close to him. Thank you Praveen for being a wonderful friend.

Disaster Recovery: Responsibility of Neighbor

It is much easier during emergencies for many Good Samaritans to pop up from nowhere and support the people in distress, and often these Good Samaritans are some good neighbors. As the time passes and the recovery and reconstruction begins, I have noted some strange human behavior taking over the genuine humaneness of persons, a behavior that goes beyond the ethereal. I have heard of persons who have allowed their land to be used freely, in spite of their own land or person loss in the family, so that other families who have lost their land may have a place in which they can set up a temporary tent as long as the "refugee's" house comes up. This is one of the most sublime of all. But the other side is also true. When the person who has lost his house, now has got compensation from the government and some money to build the house needs land for constructing a house looks for land, even the cost of bad land (risky and vulnerable land) price has gone up. A friend was telling me on Monday, in some villages the cost of land has gone up so much so that people cannot afford to buy the land, or if they buy the land, they cannot build the house!

So, there is demand for more money by way of compensation or support! Where will this circle end? In most disaster places I have noticed that the price of land going down, and it is true that the price goes up during reconstruction, usually due to the additional money coming in by way of wages and new employment opportunity created. But, price of land going up through the roof....a plot costing 400,000 rupees on a barren hill, which would require land and soil treatment besides any construction can take place.... Well, that is legalized robbery of different kind. Unless human tendency to support, serve and love remain, the vulnerable will continue to look for the most vulnerable locations to live with vulnerabilities and risks.

The Gem of All

The first of the officers I wish to talk about is Mr. Amit Singh Negi. It was on 23 Sep that I met him at his office. The interaction was hardly for a minute as I was participating in one of the initial meetings on housing policy and related strategy of the government. He had not spoken much at that time. And there was nothing called a "first impression" that he made on me. But it was after that we started interacting on few issues relating to reconstruction of schools and ICDS centers which were technically not within his realm much. On 14 Oct for the first time he called me and wanted to help plan an NGO-Corporate meeting on Housing Reconstruction. That brought me closer to him. So, what I observed were a lot purely from professional point of view than a very personal observation.

He arrived every morning between 10.00 am and 10.30 am and remained till well beyond 8.00 pm at night. He had his own ways of sharing responsibility. Officers and staff, I found, had problem in talking to him of any differences of opinion or sharing their own views. He was extremely controlled with his emotions even when things were not going okay. Under extreme pressure, he still kept cool. He knew whom to approach to support him for what purpose. He picked up any phone, and if he were in a meeting, he would call back later. He had extreme sense of respect for human beings. Oh, yes, this is one Principal Secretary into whose room most people can just walk in! That is amazing! There was very little of the problem of access to him, unless he was in a very important meeting which happened rarely. Inside his own office he had set up two small work stations where officers can sit, discuss, plan, do informal/formal meetings, take decisions, all in a very transparent manner. 

I just fell in admiration for this person. He is just a rare gem in the cloud of many many Indian Administrative Service Officers who just stand out tall and unique.

Where Government Meets People: Governance

I have recently begun to observe one important factor that really makes people feel that the government is closer to the people: an officer picking up a phone. In the last 14 years that I am carrying a cellphone, and have been connected with countless officers of various rank and file as I work in the arena of disaster management, I have seen how people can feel recognized and accepted. In one of the recent meetings a senior staff (both in age and experience) of an NGO commented in the presence of some very senior officers: "Whomsoever I phone, the only person I am sure will pick my phone, or shall call back is the UNDMT (United Nations Disaster Management Team) Coordinator sitting in the district or the state." It stuck me hard. 

Why do people get disillusioned with governments? Why do they think that the government doesn't heed to them? I myself have experienced this. I keep calling some officers three to four times a day, at different times of the day. But he / she just doesn't pick the phone. They do not have the courtesy to call back, if they were busy at the time of my calling. When I checked with other officers as to why such things happen, they mentioned that the particular officer may not have my number in his / her cellphone! That is surprising. How am I supposed to get my number into his/her phone? Send an SMS? You don't get replies!

As the day wears out you feel upset. Now if this is what happens to someone who understands the system, imagine what about ordinary people. It is not that all officers are of the same class. I have seen  at least three officers here who usually pick the phone or send a text message that they would call back, if they are busy. May be they forget to call me back later in the thick of activities, but I am glad that they acknowledged the call ! 

One important way for governments to show that they are accessible to people is to pick up the phone. It might cost time. But if you don't, it would cost the government! If a bureaucrat does not pick the phone, an elected representative of the government will lose votes in the election, and be shunted out! How on earth are people to believe that the government is closer to them? By governance. By making them feel that their needs are heard. By giving them the satisfaction that their calls will not be turned away. It is not all about solving problems. It is about making people heard, and recognized -- recognized as persons whose voice, time and self has a worth. 

About the three people who make me feel that they are with the people - I shall write in my next post.

An Untold Story: Silence of the Lambs

Couple of days back a friend working with an international non-profit organization that focuses on children's issues, sent me a mail about a missing family in the tragedy of 16 - 17 June that took away the lives of more than 5,000 people. This family was still searching for their only son who had disappeared along with his wife and an young son of about 12 years old since 17 June. I replied that the mail was incomplete if it has to be shared with any of the districts or state officials on missing persons. Later I got a call from this family. ( For the sake of this post, I shall call it Jenny's family.) When Jenny called me I was heading for a meeting, and so I scheduled to speak to her later on 19th afternoon. This post is all about that conversation that left me numb.

Jenny is married and well settled with her family along with her father. It is the story of her missing brother and his family that they are searching for as her father is inconsolable. I took details about the missing persons. Then I heard her speaking about children....women. I said "But wasn't only your brother and his wife and their single son involved?" She said, "Yes, but my uncle's family too traveled along with them." "So, how many were they?" She said, my uncle died sometime ago. My aunt along with her five daughters, their husbands and 7 children (total 18) of them and my brother, his wife and the son (that makes it 21) traveled from Delhi to Haridwar, and from there they traveled by a vehicle to upper hills. They had visited Badrinath around 15th and then on 16th they were in Kedarnath after trekking the mountains from Gourikund. They had called us after the darshan (worship). As it was raining, they decided to stay back in Kedarnath thinking that it would be difficult to trek back the 14 kilometers on the mountains with all the children in the rain. They thought it is better to stay in a place where there are lot of people in stead of getting stuck at a smaller place on the way. Since 17 June, we have not heard from any of them."

With my throat already dry, I asked her calmly, "I am very sorry to hear about this. You mean 21 persons in a single family have been just missing for the last four months?" She replied, "Yes Sir. Each day is a silent hell in our life. The rest of the family, all of us, find it even difficult to speak with one another. It is too much of SILENCE at home. None of us have much to speak to each there. With what words can any one comfort the other?"

I sympathized with her and told her that from my present position I can only share her story with the government and tell them to see if the matter can be expedited as early as possible. I checked with her if they had filed the missing person report with the police, and if inquiry has been completed, for which she replied positively. I checked if they gave DNA samples. She replied that it was not done as the Doon hospital that was handling was over crowded, it was an eternal wait for a whole day.

A whole family had been silenced. Silenced along with the thousands, leaving many more to remain in silence as they keep waiting for their beloved ones, who may never return. The trauma of the remaining members of similarly affected families would take decades to heal. Until then, pray that these families find solace in the company of good friends.

Fighting the Gods

The disaster that has taken place in the state of Uttarakhand makes me continually wonder, "Are we fighting the Gods?" This state is also known as "Devbhumi", which means, Land of Gods. The tourist spots were closer to the plains - Nainithal, Musoorie and Dehradun, to name a few. The dwelling of Gods were mostly in the snow-clad mountains. People traveled on spiritual journey, not expecting to return back home! Yes, I am correct. People did not expect to return back home, when they were on spiritual journey. The other day one of my companions, Ms. Divya Gupta said that still people in some clans conduct a kind of funeral service for those planning to leave on pilgrimage to some of these places like Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri. That is because, they thought that these were on their journey to moksha (roughly translated as "liberation" or "heaven") and if they return, good; if they do not, they have reached moksha. 

Picture courtesy: La Journal International

But, what have we done with the land? We have tried to behave exactly as do in the plains. We want high ways so that cars can ply at over 50 miles on hours on the steep mountains, we wish to have uninterrupted power supply and water supply at our door steps. What about uninterrupted tele-connectivity? We get upset if our mobile phones don't work --- and we blame the tele-service provider for poor connectivity. Young people move in hundreds and thousands only to provide service to the hundreds of thousands who flock to these and other temples, throwing away all along plastics from the fast food, cool drinks, water bottles, and packets from several brands of chips. The vehicles carry pilgrims and those on pleasure trips, leaving enough of CO2 that in their whole life time cannot undo. It is simply a tourism, centered around religious faith of people. Over exploitation of Gods for commercial reasons have probably been one of the biggest errors of all times. But religion and commerce are strange bed fellows - they openly speak against one another, but cannot live without the other.

The concept of development cannot be the same for all geographical locations, at all time. There is a need to leave many of these hills to remain just the dwelling places of gods and divine men. Remember that the Gods have remained intact in spite of the disaster, although the disaster killed thousands and destroyed much of livelihoods and buildings. Carrying worldly life of the plains to the spiritual life of the mountains is a dangerous proposition. God's will hit us back!

After all, all of us climbing up the mountain to seek God is not required, and not the right thing! One must truly be holy to climb up the mountains to see the face of God. I thought of ending it up with the first few verses of Psalm 24 from the Bible which is aptly titled, "The Earth is the Lord's":

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.

3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, (my comment: money, power: new age idols)
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

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.

Time the Compensation

One of the questions I have begun to ask in this assignment in Uttarakhand state is: Is the timing of giving compensation to families who have lost their houses "the right time"? Let us examine the facts. 

Usually after a disaster, immediately there is a hue and cry for compensating the loss. The governments, in order to get a political mileage and to silence the voices, immediately announce a compensation package, and at times it is even revised to increase the earlier package. In the case of Uttarakhand, each family that had lost its house got 200,000 rupees. Indeed, although the disaster had taken place on 16 - 17 June, during my visit to Pithoragarh district closer to the Nepal-Tibetan border with India as early as in the first week of July, I found that the families had been compensated. I was pleasantly surprised at that time the compensation has reached the community and people are happy that they received the money without any delay.

But this is the rainy season. People do not have much work. Most of the affected families are living on the generosity of the government which comes through free or subsidized food and some benefits given by the non-profit organizations. Today, that is about two months from the disaster, how much of that 200,000 is left with the families to reconstruct their houses? In any case with the rains continuing, the house reconstruction cannot start before October. So, how much will be left on the first day when the deprived family needs money? People eat, purchase clothes, pay for medicines, they travel and buy some utensils etc. with the same money.

This takes me to the first question: Is the timing of giving compensation to families who have lost their houses "the right time"? Or, should the "housing compensation be better timed?". One option I would propose is the following (an idea I shared with a few and later I wrote to Eilia J. in Care India yesterday, to share my opinion. 

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Uttarakhand gives compensation 

I would propose that the government gives the money in 3 or 4 installments; and all installments should be paid as advances (unlike in Indira Awaj Yojana where money is retroactively paid). This might have some force on the families too to take responsibility for the money and the house, while at the same time help in standardizing, completing the housing, and improve the the Cash Transfer mechanism as well.

If given in one time advance, it looks like the government has given the compensation, and it has technically washed its hands off! A longer term engagement by splitting the money will also give space for more dialogue on land rights, land usage issues, environmental concerns, risk prevention and management etc. 

May be it is time to rethink some of our compensation policies.

On the Risky Terrain - Women, Vulnerability and Disaster

06 July 2013: It has been raining since 5th noon, and it was just getting worse. I along with Rahul and Bharti went to meet few officers in the Block Administrative Office, took some data, and then proceeded towards Madkot, from where we should be going to a village called Devibagar, which was on the other side of the river. The roads were getting more damaged due to the rains, and in several places it was slippery. I was saying a prayer in my heart, as at several points I could feel that the wheels were just dragging on the wet slippery surface. When we were about four kilometers from Madkot, we saw that the road has been blocked as new debris had come down the mountain and few men were working at it. Seeing that on both sides vehicles had stopped and that the road looked very unsafe.... (we could see deep cracks appearing on the road which would after all fall into the ravine that had water cutting from below the road at over 70 feet down! It was frightening even to look at the water.

Seeing the situation we asked Bharti to return to Munsiyari, and we two men along with the IDBP soldier, began to walk towards Madkot. I kept looking in front of me and on road making sure that I am neither too close to the edge of the road nor closer to the mountain, and avoid water that had turned muddy by then. Suddenly, the soldier shouted at me, "Sir, Stop! STOP !" I stopped and turned back to him and asked, "What happened?" He said "You see the debris is coming down the hill from up? You need to look up as well!" We waited for the debris to fall, and then we jumped past that and we walked towards Madkot, wondering - "What a risky life is this! In flood prone areas, I should be careful of whirlwinds. But here what I have is - I need to look ahead of me, below me and above me, even to take a step forward!" Another prayer in heart : "God, please take me back home safely!"

After we crossed through Madkot, another three kilometers of walk to Devibagar. We stopped a gentleman in his late thirties or early forties who was walking with a young girl (approx 17 - 19 years), and asked him about how the disaster has impacted his life. He said that his house is safe, but food prices and transportation are the concern, and he did not want to talk to us because, pointing to the girl he said, he was taking his wife to the doctor! Alert, certainly in this place child marriage is rampant.

When we reached Devibagar and got into the Tourist guest house closer to the hot spring there, the eight families living there came forward, and we had very good discussion. The families took us around the affected area, spoke about how their houses were washed away by the river and how much of compensation they got etc. The children mentioned that they were studying in the Madkot school which has been washed away, and they are not sure where they would go to for schooling.  The families sounded desperate as they did not have any work and were living on the ration (relief food items and the money they got. The men and women kept mentioning that they are not getting work, even the road work. Their desperateness was on their eyes, looks and body language. I also noticed that this was the only village where I saw at least 6 young girls in their teens, which was not the case in the villages where we have visited so far, where I hardly saw a young girl. So, the question began to come to my mind:

Are these girls vulnerable to be trafficked? Why aren't many girls in other villages, including Madkot which is more thickly populated? Have the girls of those villages been already married off or trafficked? So, in that case, is Devibagar better than others - in protecting their girls?

Walk Down the Death Hill

05 July 2013: As we left our hotel a little later than usual : at 8.30 am, and we went to the local administrative office. One or two officials were beginning to come at about 9.00 am. We took some information from them about a relief camp in Dhapa and in Jimighat which functions as a transit relief camp. We decided to go to these places as they were next to each other: Dhapa camp along the road side, after which there is no road connection (as it has been cut off) and Jimighat down below the hill. We crossed Dhapa after about 50 minutes of drive on a bad damaged road, and went further for about a kilometer, beyond which we could not proceed. We decided to walk. Initially, the road wasn’t bad. As we began to walk down, we met two village travelers walking up. I stopped them and ask where they were heading to, where are they coming from and how long is the distance. One of them stopped to answer: We have been walking well beyond Martoli (closer to Indo-China border) for the last five days, and we shall reach Munsiyari today. There is no food in the hills, and so we have been walking, going past one transit camp after another so that we can get some work, live in a relative’s home, and have some food. They said that their families are in the ITBP camps and may be shifted by the army once the weather gets better. I told these men to wait for us at Dhapa camp so that we can give them a lift to Munsiyari when we return.

We then walked down towards Jimighat. It was a steep, almost 80 deg slope down hill. We were holding on to few roots and rocks in several places as the path was wet and slippery. It was like learning to walk like a little kid in all fours! The walk down the hill alone took full 40 minutes. It was a very tall mountain indeed! When we reached there we saw a kind of a little tent which the men there (who were going around smoking and looked drunk) said, “This is the relief camp!” When we introduced ourselves they brought a banner and hanged on it, and they were happy to get photographed. I walked and saw that it is just a single room structure with lots of holes, filthy, and dark. They were cooking food for lunch. I realized soon that these men were smoking hash, and were blowing it upon your nose! We also found a large notice on one side of it : “Hotel School mein hai” (which means, “The hotel has been shifted to the school !” So, where is the school? The school does not function for want of students. Due to repeated disasters and social issues most children are staying in Munsiyari town for studies. (This is an information that we could empirically verify, although people said that it is true that many families in upper hills keep their children in smaller towns.) There was a little bridge that connects the Milam sector with the main area next to this camp. People coming from the Milam sector can sit here, eat, relax and then walk ahead.  The bridge was in a very dilapidated condition and can break any moment. We visited few families in the neighborhood, spoke to them. I hardly saw women, and just a few children, in comparison to the number of men. I kept wondering where have they all gone? This place is a clear threat to children and women. (I heard on next day in Munsiyari that in the Jimighat camp, on 5^th evening, after we had left, a woman was molested.)

The walk up was still more tiresome. We had to stop several times as our heartbeat went up and perspiring too much. On our way up, picked those two travelers at Dhapa camp, and traveled back to Munsiyari. 

Madness at Madkot

04 July: Both the teams left at 6.15 am after a cup of black tea that the hotel thoughtfully provided,  and we separated after picking up an ITBP soldier each from the camp. I had Mr. Neeraj as our driver and Mr. Suresh, an ITBP soldier as our companion, along with Rahul and Bharati, my team mates. As the car climbed through the hills, Bharati took ill, and we stopped quite a few times, and at Thal for breakfast. When we reached Munsiyari at 12.30, our stay had been booked at KMVN guest house, a government run building. The lady at the front desk told us that the cost of the rooms would be 1250 per night. I was surprised that it is pretty costly with the rooms not so well maintained, with no AC etc. However, we thought of continuing to stay there. We visited the Munsiyari block office and had a brief by the Addl. District Magistrate Dr. Raghav Langer who was stationed there to coordinate the relief operations. He gave us a lot of information verbally asked one of the block officers to give further information to us in printed formats. As it was taking time, we thought of collecting the information on the next day, have lunch now (it was 3.00 pm), so that we can visit a village on the same day.

We asked Bharati to stay put at the hotel since she wasn’t feeling well, and we three men (me, Rahul and Suresh) proceeded to Madkot. Our journey to Madkot took over an hour, although the distance was hardly 16 kms. The road had been damaged at several locations, but it had been “mended”. When we crossed the river Gori just ahead of Madkot, we saw the crumbling village. Its school and several buildings had been damaged or gone in the water about 90 – 100 feet down the valley. We had discussions with families, shopkeepers, the village leader and finally we visited also the relief camp where 12 families whose houses had been fully damaged were living.

Madkot village is an entry point to several other villages, and so it had lots of shops and the houses were well built. My first impression was that the people of the village cannot be too poor here. Purely looking at the houses, there were about 30% of families who can be classified as poor, as other families lived on shops or jobs, and they seemed to be better off. We were even surprised that there were two hotels in the village! One of them was just on the river bed, and might be threatened soon if the river doesn’t change its course, and the other was a lot more interior and in a secure location.

The relief camp had been set up on an abandoned building by a failed / attempted hydro power station in a nearby location. When we visited the camp, we saw the place to be clean. After a brief with the staff at the camp, we went to visit the families in the camp.  (I am not discussing programmatic issues in this blog, because this is a personal one. And so such have been presented in official reports. Only human stories and personal experience are mentioned here.)

We saw a man on wheel chair, two other men, few children and a old lady, and we started talking to them. Other family members had gone into the village as they go about their normal work and they return whenever they think off to come to stay at the camp. They had come with all their properties as they saw the river beginning to eat up under their houses. We saw dish antennas, parked cars, heaters and even power generators! As I said earlier, many of these families were not poor. But nature had punished them, and have been left homeless and landless now. The three buildings in the camp had two floors each, and in each floor two families were staying! So, well set!

Where politics steps in: We were told that the local Member of the Legislative Assembly has told these families not to quit the camp as this place is better secured, unless and until the government gives them a better house! Arrogance of leadership.

Flying Through the Sleepy Mountains

On 2 July we had a meeting at SIDCUL, within the IT park, Dehradun with Additional Secretary, Disaster Management Department and other UN officials. We were briefed about the districts, given contact numbers in those districts, and divided into smaller teams to assess the situation in five different districts. In our team we were five members: Rahul Pandit, Dr. Abhijit B, Ms. Bharati S, and Mr. Subrat Dash, and me. I am to function as the team leader and we were scheduled to visit Pithoragarh district. I was informed by my friends that Pithoragarh is a very far off district, and might take about 15 – 17 hours of journey on road. Late night we were told that we would be taken by a helicopter, and I was given a number to contact at the airport.

An aerial view from the helicopter

On 3 July, at 9.00 am we left for Jolly Grant Airport. I was enquiring from the driver why this airport is named after a person called “Jolly Grant”, but he was not able to explain it. When we reached there, we were received by a messenger who took us through the security system in the airport. It was tough to get in because we had lot of materials that cannot normally be taken on a plane. The security personnel were strict. Once we proved our genuineness we were sent by a car to the helipad within the airport area. I met a gentleman called Mr. Sathya who is the Civil Aviation Manager at the airport. He is from Andhrapradesh, a southern state of India. I spent lot of time in his chamber to understand the hardships these gentlemen faced during the rescue operations after the flashfloods since 16 June and how they coped with it. He was narrating how it was tough on them as they spent hardly two to three hours of sleep, at times in the airport itself. Helicopter and aero plane maintenance, weather forecast follow up, VIP movement, extra number of planes carrying rescued people etc. kept the personnel at the normally sleepy Jolly Grant airport on tenderhooks. Our chopper took off around 12.20, more than an hour after hour scheduled time as the first flight of the chopper had delayed, and so had returned late, and then the captain had to take a break.

While all of us were fit with ear pads to reduce exposure to the chopper’s howling roar, I was fit with a pair of earphones and a microphone through which I can speak to the captain, in case of an emergency, and the captain can speak to me as well, if required. We were amused that the captain and the first officer were using manual maps to navigate through the forests and high mountains to fly to Pithoragarh. There are no ATCs in the area. So, on the alto meter I could see that the reading could be over 10,000 ft at a point, and suddenly it would show it is between 2000 – 4000 ft, and then it would rise to 8,000 and above in few seconds. The reasons are simple : we were flying over some very steep mountains, so when we were flying on a valley the alto meter showed that we were flying high, and suddenly, as we flew over a cliff, it was within a threatening distance. (No wonder, planes and helicopters crash on a bad weather day as they follow the manual maps which leaves lots of scope for human error.

As we landed in Pithoragarh airport, a  makeshift one, that is being repaired to make it into an all weather one, we were received by the District Collector and a very able leader: Mr. Neeraj Kherwal- which is another story.

Journey for Assessment

30 June 2013 : At last I was leaving for Uttarakhand. It had taken over 10 days for this plan to happen, because I had few other pending works to complete in Bengal, and then required an organization under whose banner I can move. As a RedR India member, I was scheduled to visit Uttarakhand and do a Emergency Needs Assessment of various districts in the first phase. I had been alerted by RedR India that I may have to stay on in Uttarakhand for about 2 - 3 months to help in the coordination of relief and response. When I reached Bolpur with my heavy suitcase and back-back, I found that my ticket had not been confirmed and that several trains are running late. The one that came when I was standing there was so badly packed that people were over-flowing from the train. It would have been impossible for me to go without a confirmed ticket. So, I hired a car and reached Kolkata where I stayed for the night.

01 July 2013 : Almost all my colleagues who would be part of the team had reached by 11.30 am, and I too reached around the same time in Delhi. We were checked in into a hotel, and then we proceeded to the UNICEF office Lodhi Road.  The meeting with UN team took place at the UNDP Conference room. I was a bit discouraged as the entire meeting dwelt around how to fill an assessment format, which was just a rework on the commonly accepted Rapid Assessment Format. This format is usually used within 24 hours or maximum of 72 hours of a disaster. But we were using it two weeks after the disaster had struck. I did not get the key to this, except that we were informed that this assessment will be collated, mapped, and will be shared with the government and other agencies. 

One of the members from the team said in confidence, "My son in the college could have done this survey!" He felt that it was almost sounding like a survey than an assessment. We returned back to the hotel and wondered why are we waiting here in Delhi....

Media and Disasters - Cyclone Aila and the Uttarakhand Floods

The Cyclone Aila hit West Bengal and Bangladesh on May 25 and 26^th, 2009, impacting the lives and livelihoods of nearly 6.8 million people in West Bengal alone.  According to the Government records, the disaster hit 28,349 villages of 206 blocks in 18 districts West Bengal killing 193 persons and leaving nearly half a million people homeless. 911,000 houses were partly or fully damaged,   2262 kilometers of roads and over 900 kilometers of river embankments so vital for preservation of ecological sensitive areas of Sunderban were washed away by  the cyclone, salinating the farmlands and inundating the villages. The estimated damage was pegged at US $ 300 million. This warranted a massive relief operation with cost estimation to the tune of Rs. 647 crores (6.47 billion). With additional support from the Union Government, the total volume spent by the government by way of relief, rehabilitation and recovery including embankment repairing would be another 5,000 crore (50 billion) rupees, besides about 50 crores spent by NGOs in relief activities. But, one big grudge was repeated in all inter-agency meetings and even in government meetings: the media did not give due attention to what had happened in West Bengal. There was very little coverage in the English news channels, and very little in the national dailies printed in other states.

In comparison to this, the damage in the state of Uttarakhand in June 2013 is much smaller in terms of territory, in terms of damage to houses, and damage to infrastructure, although more people have died there due to the unpreparedness of the community and a huge traveling population who were visiting the state. But what we see is a huge outcry in the media - both electronic and printed, each one trying to beat the other in reporting about the damage. Why is this difference in attitude of the media. Let's analyze.

Visuals Matter: In the case of cyclone Aila, we do not have cyclone tracking maniacs in the country to shoot visuals and sell it to TV companies. And once the embankments broke, it was so sudden that there was no one to take photos and videos except after the relief camps were set as everything else was under water. But in the case of Uttarakhand, the waters came like a dam-burst and hit with vengeance on anything on the way, and the buildings were collapsing while the media men and people could stand at safer distances and take visuals of it. (Picture courtesy: The Hindu)

Geographical Proximity to Capital: Uttarakhand is hardly a distance from the capital New Delhi. And there was heavy rains at the same time in Delhi, leaving several parts of it inundated, including the Delhi airport. And the fear of a flood in river Yamuna was agog. And the media men and women can fly in an out within an hour. Whereas, in the case of West Bengal, the distance did matter. Besides, there was no fear of any other part of the country under threat. After all, the cyclone is "gone", then why bother about what is gone? After all, it is not cost effective to do live coverage sitting in Delhi about a flood in the Sunderbans. There are more serious matters than that.

Impact Population: In the case of cyclone Aila, the worst affected were the people in the Sunderbans, although millions of others were also affected. But, the point is, the people of Sunderbans are all people who were residents of the area, poor and vulnerable, and had fought through several disasters throughout life. But the population in Uttarakhand is of different nature. Indeed, Uttarakhand is having such flash floods only of late. Secondly, although it is a small state, lot of rich people from other states visit it for going to various Hindu pilgrimage centers. So, you have people from Delhi, Gujarat, Bengal, Maharashtra and several other states are found to have been "impacted" due to the disaster there. There are Agarwals, Chatterjees, Mishras and several other such higher caste people stranded or affected by the floods there. But in the case of Sunderbans, it is all simple agricultural farmers and fisherman. Why bother about those who cannot make much noise!

Improved Technology: With better cellular connectivity, mobile applications, possibility of video uploading, interactive applications, and the huge impact of Google and Android in Indian market which were either not there or were not so prevalent four years ago, have played also a major part in highlighting the Uttarakhand disaster. So, when 18 districts were affected with huge damage to infrastructure and houses in West Bengal, there was hardly any demand for declaring it a "National Calamity" except for some feeble voices coming from the state itself. But, there is a huge demand for declaring the Uttarakhand flood as a national calamity, for it has affected people of several races, castes and states, although in actual number, it may not be as high as the cyclone Aila.