‘Disaster Recovery is Directly
Related to
Democracy’
Rehabilitation
expert Mihir Bhatt (MB)trades notes with Mississippi
State Senator Hillman Frazier (HF) who had a key part in the Hurricane
Katrina relief efforts
HF:
The direction of community led disaster risk
reduction and recovery taken by India is remarkable. A vibrant dialogue
between Indian & US authorities led by the citizens would add
value
for both sides.
MB:
Shouldn't this long over-due dialogue go beyond
consultants, trainings, missions, and projects. I would call it
"Dialogue between Disasters and Democratic Opportunities" for both the
citizens as well as for the governments.
HF:
Disaster recovery is
directly related to the democratic structures, processes and the voice
of the citizens in India and in the US. I think such a dialogue must
focus on building and regaining the trust of citizens in governance.
Often, too often, relief and rehabilitation governance does not have
the full trust of the victims who are also citizens. How to build this
trust? How to respond to such trust when it is built? And what measures
to take when such trust is broken?
MB:
But citizens are a diverse
group, especially in a disaster situation where some victims are more
severely affected than others; where some victims have more say on who
gets what, and where; and some victims recover faster and better.
Almost always, this is due not to the inherent abilities of the victims
but to the paths of recovery offered by the national authorities, civil
society or even international multilateral or bilateral systems.
HF:
That is right. The victims as citizens are not treated equally by
authorities. In fact, some victims are excluded from the recovery
process, often by default and in some cases deliberately. Therefore, to
regain this trust of victims as citizens in disaster governance, we
must directly address the issue of exclusion in emergencies in this
possible dialogue.
MB:
First, this exclusion is not accepted and
recognised. The other day, I was at the first ever meeting on exclusion
in emergencies in Delhi, attended by those committed to equality and
equity-oriented disaster recovery. Almost everyone assumed that it was
someone else who was doing the exclusion, and that we know how to
repair or restore such exclusion.
HF:
Maybe one way to address this
issue of exclusion is to focus on access, access to relief and
compensation, to rehabilitation resources, and to decision making.
MB:
But often the structures, social and economic, do not allow this access
not only to what you listed above but to the very decisions that define
response and recovery. For example, economic structures only allow the
victim to make up losses or regain lost livelihood but do not allow him
to find livelihoods that may not be lost should there be another
disaster. And in India, the same communities are exposed to the same or
similar disasters again and again.
HF:
The situation in the US is not
very different. We have insurance coverage to address flood risk. But
when it comes time to claim the cover, insurance companies find many
ways, legal and technical, to avoid the payment. So even where risk is
pooled and transferred, the poor do not have access to payment. As a
result, they have diminishing trust in insurance programmes. There are
many people who are renters but when they come to claim-processing they
have no advantage. We are in the process of developing a uniform policy
so such affected families can also be helped.
Mihir
Bhatt,
Tehelka, 27 oct 2007
.
