Samikhsya Bureau
The people in the Bay of Bengal, eastern coast of India have seen the most devastating disasters historically.
The Super Cyclone in 1999 was the most devastating one in which 10,000 people lost their lives. In 2013, Odisha was devastated by Cyclone Phailin, which claimed 44 lives. The recent Cyclone Titli of 2018 hit Odisha with the loss of 77 human lives besides widespread destruction of property and livelihoods.
Besides this, Odisha has historically experienced many other disasters like heat wave, drought, flood, and lightning. In each kind of disaster, the marginalised communities like Dalit, minorities, women, single women, aged persons and children are greatly affected due to their vulnerabilities and structural and geographical issues. The state government in its entire endeavor is focusing more on rescue and rehabilitation through short term intervention to save lives.
However, there is also a need to focus more on long term work with special emphasis of the most vulnerable communities as part of the efforts to reduce the risk and casualties in the disasters.
In this back ground, the member organisations of the People’s Solidarity Forum, a state level forum of the people’s organisations from the 14 districts of Odisha – Gajapati, Ganjam, Jagatsinghpur, Bolangir, Nuapada, Puri, Khurda, Balasore, Bhadrak, Mayurbhanj, Sundergarh, Kandhamal, Raygada and Nayagarh – which are affected by various links of disasters throughout the year came together and discussed about their issues and released a manifesto on disaster response and mitigation incorporating with the suggestions of the long term works that need to be undertaken for disaster risk reduction.
More than 150 leaders from 21 peoples organisations from these districts participated in the meeting. There was a presentation of the findings of the citizen’s report which was compiled after Cyclone Titli in consultation with different categories population and stakeholders.
While sharing the key findings of the report, development researcher Priyabrata Satapathy said that there was no clear line of communication and coordination among the various state agencies involved in the search and rescue operations of Cyclone Titli. The most vulnerable group like PWD, single woman, old and destitute who were differently affected by the cyclone have not been provided with special support, which is extremely distressing.
A large section of the farming communities are doing agriculture on forest lands but their rights have not been recognised under the Forest Rights Act and they have been excluded from getting compensation for the loss in the forest land. Cashew plants are important source of livelihood but there has not been any assistance from the government for its restoration.
“The government should undertake the disaster preparedness and risk reduction work both in coastal and non-coastal areas. Mapping of vulnerable population like single women, aged persons, PwD, children, pregnant women is vital for effective disaster risk reduction,” Action Aid regional manager Debabrat Patra said while addressing the meeting.
Patra added that prioritisation needs to be done on who should be rescued first and given support to their specific needs. People’s involvement in the disaster preparedness committees, linkage with social security and promotion of climate resilient traditional agriculture for sustainable livelihoods are some of the important areas where the government should focus on in a long term basis as part of the disaster risk reduction efforts, he said. .
Many participants demanded in the meeting that the state government should focus on rescue for PWD/ women/ uncared aged/ children and other vulnerable sections of society as these sections suffer more during disasters. This is in line with the Section 8 (1 to 4) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016.
The state government should focus on fast and prompt rehabilitation process through a single window (within six months) fast track system. This step will prevent the tremendous distress and the resultant forced migration among disaster survivors, they said.
