Disaster Management

UNIT 2 DISASTER MANAGEMENT

Contents
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Defining Disasters
2.3 Anthropological Understanding of Disasters
2.4 Understanding Disaster Management
2.5 Locating Anthropology in the Disaster Management Framework
2.5.1 Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP)
2.5.2 Information, Education and Communication (The IEC Model)
2.5.3 Indigenous Knowledge
2.5.4 Policy and Advocacy
2.5.5 Understanding Disasters for Better Management
2.6 Challenges in Disaster Research
2.7 Opportunities for Anthropologists in the Field of Disaster Management
2.8 Summary
References
Suggested Reading
Sample Questions

Learning Objectives
&
After having read this unit, you should be able to:
Ø define disasters;
Ø understand disaster management;
Ø appreciate anthropological contribution in disaster management;
Ø understand challenges in disaster research; and
Ø locate opportunities for anthropologists in the field of disaster management.

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Disasters are escalating globally. Not only this, the magnitude, and destruction
caused by them is also on a rise. We are all aware of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake
and tsunami in Japan that caused large scale destruction. It is also a case which
reminds us that when technology and environmental hazards see each other face
to face, it results into devastation as seen in Japan where tsunami affected the
Fukushima Nuclear plant and a state of nuclear emergency was declared. From
time to time, we have seen India facing emergency of similar nature, not to
mention the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, The Indian Ocean Tsunami and The Gujarat
Earthquake, which are still alive in the collective memory of the people. India
is vulnerable to different kinds of disasters which are reflected in the table
below:

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Diverse Arenas of
Practicing Anthropology Disaster Type Percentage of the total area prone to
disaster

Earthquakes 58.6 percent of landmass

Floods and River Erosions 12 percent of land

Cyclones and Tsunami 75.8 (of the 7516 Km long coastline

close to 5700 Km is prone)

Drought 68 percent of the cultivable area

Source: National Policy on Disaster Management approved by Union Cabinet on October 22,
2009

Apart from the natural disasters, India is also vulnerable to man-made disasters
which call for a serious attempt on the part of the governement and also on the
part of the citizens to help reduce the vulnerability of the population. This can
only be achieved by adopting a pro-active approach of better prepardness, planning
and mitigation and also of quick relief, rehabilitation and sustainable recovery.
Thus, managing disasters is an option that has gained immense importance in
this background.

This unit on disaster management has been such designed to give you an account
of what we mean by the term disaster and how anthropologists have understood
the term. After having defined what a disaster is, we will move towards
understanding what exactly we mean by disaster management and how there has
been a shift in thinking about the term over a period of time. This will lead us to
locate anthropology in the disaster management framework, where we will look
into how anthropologists can contribute and have contributed for managing
disasters. This will include the role of anthropologists in community based disaster
preparedness, using the concept of Information, Education and Communication
(IEC) for managing disatsers, role of indigenous knowledge in disaster
management, anthropological contribution towards policy building and advocacy
of rights and understanding disasters for better management. Then we will move
towards understanding challenges in disaster research. Finally, we will talk about
the opportunities available for anthropologists in the field of disaster management.

2.2 DEFINING DISASTERS

Disasters have affected the human population since its inception. They have
always been a danger for the human civilisation, and some evidence also suggests
that the entire civilisation was washed away by disasters. One of the earliest
evidence of floods washing away the human settlement is recorded by
archaeologists as dating back to the Indus Valley Civilisation (3000 B.C.-1200
B.C.). It has been argued that one of the main causes of the decline of the earliest
civilisation was floods (Sahani, 1956). Another instance of flood playing havoc
comes from the work of B.B. Lal (1955) who carried out excavations at Hastinapur
(Mawana tehsil of Meerut district, U.P.) and in upper Ganga and Sutlej basins.
Hastinapur is a capital city which is mentioned in the epic of Mahabharata.
According to the ancient Indian literature, the regime of Nichakshu, the fifth
ruler after the Mahabharata battle, there occurred a flood in the Ganga which
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washed away Hastinapur and the capital was shifted to Kaushambi. This event is Disaster Management
established by an excavation carried out at the site, which indicates that a heavy
flood in the Ganga washed a considerable portion of the Painted Grey Ware
settlement (period II) at Hastinapur, which resulted in the desertion of the site
for some time to come.
In this context disasters can be seen as destructive agents. But what we are calling
disasters here (ex- floods) are actually natural hazards that occur in a particular
geographical location. These hazards are transformed into disasters when they
come in close contact with the human population and thus affect lives and property.
Thus in this sense disasters occur when environment and society come together.
It can be defined as occuring due to the nexus between environemnt and society.
However, coming to the modern times, which is marked by industrialisation and
technological advancements, a third dimension is added to the above mentioned
diad and that is technology. Thus disasters can be viewed as emerging out of a
nexus between environment, society and technology. This triad talks about another
kind of disaster which we call as man-made disasters where technological
advancements, development and society are at logger heads.
The term disaster originated from a French word ‘Desastre’ which is made up of
two words- ‘des’ meaning bad or evil and ‘astre’ meaning star. Thus disaster
means a bad-star. Here the term is associated with an event on which there is no
human control and something which is supernatural and extra-terrestrial. People
also associate disasters with religion where it is said to occur due to the fury of
God. These beliefs are widely held even today. Whatever it may be but one thing
is for sure that for most of the natural disasters it can be said that human beings
have little control. At present the maximum we can do is to know beforehand
about a tsunami, flood, cyclone etc. but cannot do anything to stop them. But
another line of thinking regarding the occurance of natural disaster says that
since human beings have exploited their mother nature by various developmental
activities, as a result of that we are facing global warming which in turn is
responsible for various disasters. By this argument, every disaster is man-made.
But still we differentiate between the natural and the man-made disaster on the
basis of the extent of control human beings have on the occurance of such events.
There is another basis on which disasters can be divided into two types- disasters
occuring suddenly i.e disasters having a sudden-onset and the others having slow-
onset. In the first category we can keep disasters like earthquakes, floods etc.
and in the second category we can keep disasters like drought. But whatever be
the nature of their occurance- sudden or slow, they are all encompassing events
that affect almost every aspect of the society.
The Disaster Management Act, 2005 has defined disasters in these terms- “disaster
means a catastrophe, mishap, calamity or grave occurance in any area, arising
from natural or man-made causes or by accident or neglegance which results in
substantial loss of life or human suffering or damage to and destruction of property
or damage to and degradation of environment and is of such a nature or magnitude
as to be beyond the coping capacity of the community of the affected area.” This
definition brings out two important characterstic of the term disaster which can
be stated as under:
1) Apart from loss of life and damage to property, disaster also includes those
events that are a serious threat to the environment and may cause environmental
degradation.
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Diverse Arenas of 2) Also disasters are of such a nature and magnitude that they are beyond the
Practicing Anthropology
coping capacity (also called as resilience) of the community. This suggests
that to cope with the event, community requires external support and help.

Activity 1
Look into the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and see what provisions are
made in the act for managing disasters.

2.3 ANTHROPOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF

DISASTERS
For understanding disaster it is also important to differentiate between hazard
and disaster. Although they are very closely related and sometimes used
interchangibly, hazard is a life threatening event and disaster is a consequence of
this event. When hazard acts upon a population it may result into disaster. Not
all hazards will lead to disaster, but when hazards interact with a vulnerable
population it will lead to a disaster. The idea of vulnerability is very important to
understand disaster. The following equation will make things clearer:

DISASTER = HAZARD × VULNERABILITY

Now one may ask that what do we mean by vulnerability? Wisner et al. (2004)
answers this question by defining vulnerability as “…the characteristic of a person
or group and their situation that influence their capacity to anticipate, cope with,
resist and recover from the impact of a disaster.” This definition makes it clear
that vulnerability is the characterstic of the population which makes them more
suseptible for damage due to hazards. Population is a heterogenous entity, that is
there are different kinds of people, there are different groups in a popualtion that
differ from each other on important parameters like age, gender, caste, religion,
ethnic identity, class etc. these different groups are differentially susceptible to
hazards. It is a common observation that people from lower socio-economic
strata are more affected than people from upper strata. Again, elderly, female
and children are more affected during hazard impact.

The vulnerability approach to disaster discussed above is something in which

anthropologists are interested and their conception of disaster revolves largely
around this issue. Anthropology since its inception has been interested into
deciphering or knowing about different populations of the world, their society
and culture. This twin concept of society and culture has caught the imagination
of anthropologists since its beginning. They are more interested in knowing about
the social structure of a community i.e., to say about their social relationships
and laws governing those relationships, also they paid attention to the underlying
cultural basis of these relationships. It is this social structure that makes population
vulnerable to hazards. They have also advocated about understanding a society
from emic perspective (people’s point of view) and being holistic in understanding
any society. Hence, when anthropologists try to understand disaster they bring in
all these concepts. For an anthropologist disasters are situated more in the
community than in the event itself, thus disaster is seen more as a process than
an event. She tries to understand that how a disaster event will impact the entire
community under study and how different institutions in a society will get affected
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by a disaster. The fundamental framework of holistic investigation in anthropology Disaster Management
is most suited for disaster studies, since disasters are all encompassing and only
a complete view is suited to understand them fully.
Looking from an emic perspective, an anthropologist will try to understand the
term disaster as defined by the people themselves and how their conception is
different from that of the relief providers and relief agencies. Anthropologists
will also understand the communtiy response to the extreme events. How well
the community is equipped to handle disaster situation and how the local support
system, in the form of various institutions, like family, kinship etc., helps in
disaster response. In these terms anthropologists are more interested to understand
the social capital of the community (social resources in terms of relationship
that are helpful to cope with extreme events).
Anthropologists are interested in understanding change in a society and a disaster
situation will give opportunity to look into this dimension. An anthropologist
will look into how the society and its social institutions undergo change after
disaster. It has been documented that areas which are flooded every year show a
change in the marriage pattern. Families are no longer intereseted in marrying
their daughters to people residing in those areas since they may have to face
hardships due to annual flooding. This has changed the marriage pattern in these
areas since availability of bride is reduced immensely, which in turn has promoted
the practice of ‘buying wives’ from other far-flung areas. Likewise there can be
changes related to other dimesions in the society like- relationship between people,
change in the political power structure due to changing affiliations in the wake
of disaster1 .
The above discussion largely pertains to the branch of socio-cultural anthropology.
But anthropologists also try to understand disaster impacts from physical
anthropological dimensions. A physical anthropologist is more interested in
knowing how biological features interact with the socio-cultural features.
Vulnerability is not only social in nature but it can also be physical/biological.
For example, consider the population where some of the people are malnourished,
will they not be more vulnerable in a disaster situation which results in economic
deplition and in turn lead to less nourishment. These people will also be more
susceptible to various disease out-break after disaster. Although malnourishment
is again due to poor economic condition, which can be socially constructed in
the form of marginal groups, but measuring the level and extent of
malnourishement would require the skills of a physical anthropologist, who with
the help of her/his anthropometric rod, callipers and other instruments will decide
about the status of malnourishement. This will again help us to understand disaster
in a holistic perspective (Joshi et al., 2010).
There is yet another branch i.e., archaeological anthropology, which has also
contributed to understanding disasters. This approach emphasises the role of
disasters in socio-economic evolution of populations. Archaeological evidence
are largely related with the material aspect of culture, like, habitat, art, use of
terrain etc. These evidence throw some light on to how people cope with disasters
or what sustains a society’s resilience to disaster. Archaeology indicates that
which segment of population re-emarge after the disaster and how and why some
disappear. Also it indicates that what mixture of strategies a culture might have
adopted to face disaster (Oliver-Smith and Hoffman, 1999).
1
This was revealed during fieldwork conducted in flood affected regions of Eastern Uttar Pradesh. 23
Diverse Arenas of After having discussed the anthropological understanding of disaster, we will
Practicing Anthropology
now move towards understanding the meaning of disaster management and then
we will see that how anthropologists can contribute towards effective disaster
management.

2.4 UNDERSTANDING DISASTER MANAGEMENT

There has been a paradigm shift in the concept of disaster management, which
has been incorporated in the disaster management act, enacted on December 23,
2005. Earlier, disaster management was restricted to post-disaster relief and
rehabilitation but it was later realised that a more pro-active approach is needed
for effective management of disaster and for this purpose it is necessary that
capacity building of the community should be the focus, where the emphasis is
on vulnerability reduction and preparedness and mitigation before disaster. Hence
disaster management now has been divided into two phases- pre-disaster
preparedeness and mitigation, and the post-disaster relief, rehabilitation and
sustainable recovery phase. The idea of sustainable recovery is important to the
idea of disaster management, since recovery should be such that it can bear the
impact of future disasters. This approach of sustainable recovery is also related
with the idea of sustainable development, where the development process is
such designed which can withstand the impact of disaster.

The Disaster Management Act, 2005 defines it as more ‘like a continuous and
integrated process of planning, organising, co-ordinating and implementing
measures which are necessary for:
a) Prevention of danger or threat of any disaster
b) Mitigation or reduction of risk of any disaster
c) Capacity building including research and knowledge management
d) Preparedness to deal with any disaster
e) Prompt response to any threatening disaster situation
f) Assessing severity of effects of any disaster
g) Evacuation, rescue and relief
h) Rehabilitation and reconstruction.

From the above definition, it is quite clear that disaster management is a

continuous process wherein we plan, organise, co-ordinate and impliment the
measures to reduce risk, increase our capability to fight with the emergency
situation, prepare ourselves in such a way that even if disaster strikes, we are in
a position to respond promptly, can assess the severity of effect, provide relief
and recover fast to normal condition. Policy makers and others in the position of
decision making have realised that, only development cannot be the goal. Mindless
construction of dams, roads, bridges, buildings and other infrasructure cannot
solve the purpose in the long run. What is needed is the idea of sustainable
development, that can withstand the test of time and extreme conditions.

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The idea of disaster management can be diagramatically represented as follows2 : Disaster Management

Prevention, prepardness, mitigation

(Pre-Disaster Phase)

Impact

Relief, response, rehabilitation,

resettlement, reconstruction
(Post-Disaster Phase)

The diagrame reveals that the process of disaster management is a continuous

process where the pre-disaster and post-disaster phases are continuous. This means
that the rehabilitation and reconstruction will be such that it will promote
prevention, prepardness and mitigation of future disasters and again the
prepardness will be such that it promotes quick response and better rehabilitation.
The above mentioned framework of disaster management will guide our
discussion on the role of anthropology in disaster management. In the next section
and subsequent sub-sections we will learn that, how our training in anthropology
will help in better disaster management.

2.5 LOCATING ANTHROPOLOGY IN THE

DISASTER MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Anthropology as a subject has lot to offer in the field of disaster management.
We have already understood that how anthropologists look at disasters. In this
section we will learn that how that knowledge can be put to use for better
management. The following sub-sections of this section will make clear about
the diverse areas in which anthropological training can be used for managing
disasters. The first submission that an anthropologist will make with reference
to disaster management is the people-centric or community-centric approach.
For an anthropologist, people come first. Whatever prepardness strategy or
recovery and rehabilitation strategy will be made, the voice of the affected people
will be in the fore-front. The formulation of policy and advocay will be based on
in-depth research. You might be thinking that this is something that everyone
will want to achieve but not everyone can achieve this without applying the
anthropological tools and methods. In any disaster situation the major cause of
discontent and dissatisfaction from the relief providers is that, they do not cater
to the needs of the people, instead they cater to their own conception of relief.
This is the juncture where an anthropologist chips-in. S/he can act as a bridge
between the people and the service-provider, or relief-provider. S/he can also
achieve in terms of prepardeness what everyone else could not. We will discuss
these issues and others in the following pages:
2
Diagrame adopted from the National Policy on Disaster Management 25
Diverse Arenas of 2.5.1 Community Based Disaster Prepardness (CBDP)
Practicing Anthropology
In the wake of any extreme event, it is the community that is affected first. Also,
it is the community that responds first to any kind of disaster before any relief
can come from outside, therefore it becomes necessary that community should
participate in the disaster management plan. CBDP is an approach where
community participation is of utmost importance. This will ensure that people’s
perception of the event is not missed or putting it in other words, people’s
perception is primary in this approach. If you look into the literature of
anthropology, then you must have come across the word ‘emic.’ This word means
that anthropologists are concerned with the people’s point of view. Local is more
important. The approach of CBDP aims at this level. It ensures that people should
come forward and participate in planning. This is done through various
participatory methods like- vulnerability mapping, resource mapping and safe
route mapping.

In vulnerability mapping, the aim is to know that which areas of a village or a

territory in which an anthropologist is working are more vulnerable to extreme
events. This is done with the help of mapping the entire area. A group of villagers
or local people sit with the anthropologist and map the entire area on a sheet of
paper or a black-board where important places in the area are marked like schools,
temples, houses, wells, hand-pumps, anganwadi centers, hospitals (primary health
centers) etc., and in case of a disaster which of these areas will be more affected
for example in case of floods which areas are likely to get flooded first and
which areas are likely to be worst hit by floods. This kind of mapping will ensure
that people can know before-hand, what are the safe places in their vicinity where
they can move quickly if need arises. Again, for this purpose, safe-route mapping
is done where safe routes are marked, with the help of local people which can be
followed in case of emergency evacuation. The basic idea behind this approach
is that ‘people know better.’ Also with the help of community participation
resource mapping is done, where resources are located in the area which can be
utilised in emergency and also after any disaster for immediate recovery. This
enhances the capacity of the people and makes them less vulnerable to disasters.
Thus, these are also measures for vulnerability reduction with which
anthropologists are concerened.

Other components of CBDP include making different teams of local people that
can help in diverse areas of disaster management, like involving the village
panchayat, selecting young people who can mobilise people for making the CBDP
plan in the first place and then can be helpful during recovery and rehabilitation
process. The CBDP plan also incorporates understanding the history of disaster
in that particular area and the amount and extent of damage caused by previous
disasters. This will help in better prepardness for future events. Thus anthropological
work and knowledge starts right from the prepardness phase of disaster
management.

Activity 2
Try to make a vulnerability map of your locality using participatory technique
and look how you can be better prepared in case of an earthquake. Locate
vulnerable areas that are overcrowded and safe places and routes that can be
used during an earthquake.

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An important study conducted in Nagapattinam district of Tamil Nadu on the Disaster Management
risk factors of 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami made some recommendations with
regards to the community based disaster prepardness. It was found that women
emerged as the most vulnerable group in it. In the wake of this reality, it was
recommended that “vulnerability of women in such communities is a major issue
that should be specifically targeted in any future disaster prepardness and early
warning programe.” This was further extended to include that community disaster
prepardness programes and policies should focus on specific vulnerable target
groups. Therefore an important dimension to the CBDP was added through this
study that brings to our attention, the incorporation of vulnerable groups in the
prepardness scheme. This study also had a team of anthropologists headed by
Prof. P.C. Joshi on board (Guha-Sapir et al., 2006).

2.5.2 Information, Education and Communication (The IEC

Model)
It is a strategy and an approach that attempts to change a set of behaviour in the
target group. In the area of disaster management one would like to change the
perception of the people regarding the entire process of disaster management. It
is necessary to make people understand that pre-disaster prepardness is as
important as post-disaster recovery for effective management and for doing this
job one needs to communicate with the people. Going by a simple definition of
communication, it is a process that establishes commoness among the receiver
of the message and the sender. The information encoded in the form of message
is needed to be communicated in the lingu – franca of the community where the
change is desired. This message can be about the importance of sanitation in
case of disaster or spread of communicable disease during various disaster and
precautions that one should take to avoid them. The message can also be about
do’s and dont’s in the wake of an earthquake or a chemical attack or a gas leak or
about something most important in a disaster situation- early warning signal. It
has been documented during a fieldwork by an anthropologist in a flood prone
area of eastern Uttar Pradesh that even though people were provided with the
warning of an impending flood, they refused to act upon that warning. A deeper
probe into the reason revealed that people do not trust the source of warning as
sometimes the warning is correct and sometimes it is not. Thus credibility of the
source providing the message is also important. Again, the message should be
encoded in such a way that it is easily understood by majority of people. If the
message is too technical or very lenghty then people might not take it seriously.
The anthropological approach comes in handy at this point where an
anthropologist tries to help the local authorities to create such a message that is
embedded in the cultural context of the reciever.

There are various ways in which the local authority tries to inform, educate and
communicate messages across to people but they are not successful all the time
and then they complain about non-compliance of the people. If one would visit
any disaster prone area, then one would find such pamphlets and hand-outs stuck
on the walls of various government and non-governement buildings, sometimes
these messages convey the meaning but sometimes they fail to do so. Here an
anthropologist with local knowledge can be of help in designing and conveying
messages effectively across different communities.

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Diverse Arenas of A field experience is worth sharing where a method of communicating vital
Practicing Anthropology
issues regarding floods was devised. Here, a disaster management chariot (locally
known as aapada prabandhan rath) was devised in a form of a jeep carrying a
loudspeaker which travelled from village to village, educating people about how,
by using empty plastic bottles, they can make their own life jackets which can be
used for keeping afloat during floods. This seems to be an affective strategy of
educating people but after sometime it seemed to the author that people lost
interest in the process. As the chariot arrived in the village only a few people
gathered around it and participation on a large scale was missing. The use of a
loudspeaker blocked two way flow of knowledge. It was more like a one-way
traffic. It could have given better results if this method was negotiated at both
the ends (sender and receiver), people could have shared their previous experience
with similar methods, or must have shared their concern regarding the availability
of empty plastic bottles etc. These are some observations that an anthropologist
can make during fieldwork and can suggest for better alternate strategy and thus
contribute towards effective disaster management. A comprehensive IEC strategy
aims at long-term capacity building at the grassroot level. This leads to
empowerment of the target population through education, as they are placed in a
better position to make informed choices.

Activity 3
Device an innovative and attractive message using audio-visual or simply
on a paper using colours that can educate people about health issues after
floods, like sanitation, cleanliness, safe drinking water etc.

2.5.3 Indigenous Knowledge

Throughout this unit we have been talking about the anthropological approach
of looking at a problem through the people’s point of view. It is also said that
indigenous knowledge is under-utilised in the development process. This approach
is reflected best when an anthropologist tries to understand the local knowledge
of the people regarding resilience or coping from a disaster situation.
Understanding the indigenous knowledge regarding disaster prepardness and
coping is based on the fact that people develop some knowledge in order to
adapt to their environment, which is based on their past experience with similar
situations. It is a fact that when tsunami hit the Indian sub-continent, many tribes
living in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands saved themselves from devastation.
This was made possible because of their reliance on indigenous knowledge of
natural warning signals in the form of movement and activity of birds, animals
and aquatic life. Over a long period of time they must have observed such signals
which became incorporated in their collective conciousness. This type of
knowledge gets transmitted from generation to genaration in the form of oral
tradition. This type of knowledge is not documented by the community. Such
knowledge has shown its importance time and again during an emergency. It
provides basis for problem solving strategies. Understanding indigenous
knowledge increases responsiveness to the clients. This knowledge provides a
productive context for activities designed to help people develop and handle
crises.

Now, it has been fully realised that the indigenous knowledge system can become
an important tool in disaster management. It is of such an importane that the
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national policy on disaster management approved by the union cabinet on October Disaster Management
22, 2009 has devoted a separate section on knowledge management for better
disaster mitigation and in this section it also talks about the importance of
indigenous knowledge “which is handed down right from ancient times by way
of tried and tested practises in facing disasters in different parts of India.” However
much needs to be done in the form of actual documentation and dissemination
of this kind of knowledge.

The author’s experience of working in a village community enundated by floods

revealed that people developed their own knowledge of mitigating and managing
with such situations. This kind of indigenous knowledge can largely be divided
into technological, economic and environmental. The technological dimension
deals with the local understanding and know-how of building flood-proof, make-
shift huts that can be carried on a bullock-cart in case, floods enundate the entire
area. The economic dimension suggests that people are not dependent upon a
single source of income and are engaged in multiple economic activities, so that
they can fall back on the alternatives in case, floods destroy their fields. The
environmental dimension is the most interesting which comprises their knowledge
of identifying environmental signal of an approaching flood.

2.5.4 Policy and Advocacy

The anthropological understanding of the field situation in disasters is of immense
importance for policy formulation and advocacy of rights and equal distribution
of relief after disasters. From the first hand field account, it can be stated that
there are two issues that are related with policy implications and advocacy- a)
widespread dissatisfaction with the relief provided and b) unequal distribution
of relief or the politics of relief distribution. This is a widely held view among
the disaster victims that, the relief provided is “too little and too late.” Also,
people complain that the district administration and various stake-holders could
not cater to the immediate needs of the people. To answer this question, an in-
depth analysis of people’s perception is needed. It is found that a gap exists
between the people’s perception of an extreme event and the authorities
(provider’s) perception of the event. To illustrate this point with an example, it
was found in an anthropological study conducted among the flood affected people
that there was a wide gap in the definitional aspect of floods. It is a common
observation and also well documented now, that people’s reaction to an event or
phenomenon is based on the definition that they provide to the event. This means
that the action depends on how one defines the issue. If there are different
definitions to a phenomenon, then the action is bound to be different. In the
above study it was found that there was a gap between how the affected people
defined floods and the relief providers’ definition. Flood affected people defined
it in terms of various problems that they face in a flood situation. Their definition
was more problem oriented where floods are seen as a crisis situation that requires
immediate attention and help. On the other hand the various stake-holders (relief
providers) definition has been largely phenomenon oriented in nature. For them
floods are more of a natural calamity, natural hazard that occur every year. There
was no sense of urgency in their definition of floods. This is reflected in their
action and in-turn results into people’s dissatissfaction (Khattri, 2011).

Coming to the second issue of unequal distribution of relief, it can be stated that
disaster impacts a heterogenous population where groups differ on the basis of
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Diverse Arenas of caste, religion, socio-economic status, etc. Studies on the Indian villages have
Practicing Anthropology
revealed that the dominant caste in a village is one which is economically and
politically sound and well connected. This means that such groups will have
greater control over the resources. Again, religious minorities in an area feel that
they are being left-out in the whole process of relief distribution and disaster
recovery. These issues have certain policy implications. Advocacy for rights of
the minority groups during disaster recovery and rehabilitation needs to be
incorporated into the disaster management plan. Relief providers should be more
sensitive towards such issues.

2.5.5 Understanding Disasters for Better Management

For managing disasters in a better and more effective way, it is necessary to
understand the disaster situation. William I. Torry in his review article on the
anthropological work in the field of disasters has outlined a more important role
for anthropologists in understanding the disaster situation and thus for its better
management. The effective method of ethnographic fieldwork in a community
or a region places an anthropologist in a position from where s/he can perform a
useful function of “facilitating communication between beaurcracy and the
community/society.” Anthropologists can act as “cultural translators” in Torry’s
words. They can communicate needs and problems of the people which will
eventually help the state machinery to prepare in a better way for future and also
to undertake a more inclusive relief and recovery operation after the disaster.
Torry further states that an anthropologist should relay the information between
the community leaders and administrators throughout the emergency. Spillius,
another scholar who talks about the role of anthropologists in a disaster situation,
states that, anthropologists should become an “instrument for easing parties into
positions permitting them collectively to solve problems.” In other words
anthropologists can act as facilitators between the various stake-holders in a
disaster situation.
The actual site of disaster is not the only place where anthropologists can do
their fieldwork, there are other interesting sites where fieldwork can yeild a better
understanding. One such site to which Torry points out is the behaviour of complex
governemental and non-governmental organisations in a disaster situation. The
organisational structure of these organisations, the decision making process during
crisis, the negotiation of meaning of an event and labelling them as disaster
events, all these fall well within the scope of an anthropological study. “Extended
field studies- not quickie questionnaire surveys- probing deep into the beaurucratic
behaviour observed in any disaster context” can be undertaken by anthropologists
(Torry, 1979). An organisation can also be understood in terms of its expected
role in a disaster situation and its actual achievements. An in-depth anthropological
understanding can bring out the cause of any discripancy, if it exists, between
the expected role and actual achievements of an organisation. This in turn will
help the organisations to think over their limitations and shortcomings that will
eventually lead to better disaster management.
An important dimension, which till now has not been fully explored by
anthropologists is the impact of disasters and their management in the urban
context. India is urbanising fast. In a recently held census of 2011, it is estimated
that 31 percent of the area comes under the urban category. Also, in the wake of
increased disaster world over, urban centers are even more vulnerable than the
rural ones. The increased vulnerability is due to the fact that population density
30
is more in urban areas, this means packed spaces with concrete buildings, which, Disaster Management
if destroyed by an extreme event can cause more collateral damage. This scenario
asks for a better understanding of disaster impact in urban centers. Torry is of the
opinion that “anthropologists are capable of examining the social and economic
risks among hazard prone urban population, as they have been in the tribal
context” (Torry, 1979).

This discussion leads us to the next section where we will examine the
anthropological research methodology which is the primary tool of understanding
disasters and hence an aid in disaster management.

2.6 CHALLENGES IN DISASTER RESEARCH

The anthropological way of doing research involves an in-depth understanding
of the community and area under study. This is largely achieved by conducting
fieldwork in an area by using participant observation. Fieldwork in itself is not a
single method, but a battery of other methods of data collection, together constitute
a fieldwork. These include, structured and unstructured in-depth interviews,
focused group discussions, life histories, case studies, etc. When an anthropologist
returns from the field s/he is in possession of a large quantity of both qualitative
and quantitative data which is then analysed to reach to a conclusion. However,
the field of disaster research poses some different challenges that normal field
situations do not. If a researcher decides to study for example the social impacts
of disaster, s/he will choose an area affected by some disaster at a given point of
time and then plan to move into that area for in-depth research. This first phase
is known as ‘entering the field.’ It is quite challenging to enter the field affected
by a disaster. The time of entering is very important. Disasters disrupt the normal
life of the people and they are busy in getting back to normal, this is a very
sensitive time when extra care needs to be taken. To give you an example from
the author’s experience, the author had to abonden his field visit at the time
villages were affected by floods, since lots of disturbance occured in the field.
Any attempt on the part of the researcher to force her/his entry would defeat her/
his future plans of data collection. This, crucial time should be utilised in getting
second-hand information from some local contacts in the field and newspaper
reports that can be verified later on.

An ethical issue that emerges in disaster research is realted with the extent to
which a researcher can go to invoke response from the respondents. Since
following a disaster, people are physically and mentally drained, it becomes
impossible sometimes to continue with the interview. Such a condition can also
occur in normal times but the magnitude is greater during an emergency situation
or periods just following emergency situations.

Most discussions of the ethics of research assume that researchers seek to maintain
a neutral or impartial stance, at least insofar as their role as researcher is concerned.
Researchers face an ethical dilemma, often without being aware of it. This is the
temptation to take sides. This dilemma, however, is not unique to disaster research;
it clearly exists for example in studies that are conventionally described as social
problems and deviant behaviour (Stalling, 2006). However, ethical issues in
disaster research seem especially salient in events that become politically
contentious. Accusations, suspicions and finger-pointing make the researcher
more visible to everyone involved, both during data gathering and afterwards.
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Diverse Arenas of As researchers, we all have to undertake an impotant process of selecting
Practicing Anthropology
respondents and making them understand that why they are selected, which is a
necessary, but difficult task. However, in a disaster situation this task becomes
even more difficult since people who are left out, become apprehensive about
their status and they fear that since the researcher has left them and not recorded
their version of reality, they may not get necessary aid at the time of disaster.
This situation makes a disaster field even more challenging.
Anthropological research methods can generate rich data on the social impacts
of disasters and in-turn can be very useful in effective disaster management. The
intensive fieldwork tradition has the capability to understand the impact of disaster
on the social fabric of a community. It is also useful in understanding social
change.
The qualitative data generated through fieldwork can give insight into the
indigenous knowledge system of the community under study, which can be
integrated with the existing disaster management plan for better response and
resilience. Also, the qualitative data helps in understanding the collective mind
of the people regarding their problems, miseries, vulnerabilities, aspirations and
expectations in a disaster situation (Joshi et al., 2010). Another advantage of this
type of data is that, it can be put to statistical use by deciphering the dominant
themes and major issues in the document by putting them to content analysis.
Thus, anthropology and anthropologists have a lot to contribute positively towards
understanding impacts of disaster and managing it by reducing vulnerability and
increasing resilience.

2.7 OPPORTUNITIES FOR ANTHROPOLOGISTS

IN THE FIELD OF DISASTER MANAGEMENT
You must have got a fair amount of idea from the above discussion about the
role anthropology is playing and can play in the field of disaster management.
This has opened up many areas where anthropologists can get and are getting
employment. Those students who are more inclined towards conducting research
in this field will find immense opportunities both in the national and the inter-
national arenas. Disaster management is becoming important with every passing
disaster which is devastating lives. This needs quality research and documentation
for better management. A lot of economic resources are being diverted to manage
disasters. These resources are utilised to undertake projects on disaster impact
and setting up of institutions of national importance to understand disasters.
Institutes like the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Tata
Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and many Indian universities teaching courses
on disaster management, open up immense opportunity for people trained in this
special field. There are some international projects that are totally devoted to the
study of disasters like the European Union 6th framework project entitled-
“Integrated Health Social and Economic Impacts of Extreme Events: Evidence,
Methods and Tools” which had anthropologists as their research team members
and co-ordinators. Apart from this many national and inter-national agencies
and NGOs are running big projects on disaster management and require personnel
who are trained in the disaster research methodology. Thus, the field of disaster
management offers a unique opportunity for cutting edge, path breaking research
and social service where you can contribute towards making this earth a better
32 place to live in.
 Disaster Management
2.8 SUMMARY
Thus, in the above discussion we have seen that a disaster strikes when hazards
meet a vulnerable population. It occurs at the interface between society,
environment and technology. It also causes a widespread devastation and damage
to life and property. As a result people find their resources as insufficient to cope
with such an event and require outside help and support in the form of material
and councelling. Disaster management as a special area of concern at the national
and international level has seen a shift in thinking from a relief centric approach
to a more pro-active and processual approach which gives emphasis on pre-
disaster prepardness, planning and mitigation and post-disaster relief,
rehabilitation and sustained recovery. The anthropological knowledge and method
of approaching disaster management is more people-centric. The approach of an
anthropologist is local but its reach is global. To end this field of knowledge
requires scholars that are trained in anthropology as we have seen in the above
discussion that anthropologists have a bigger role to play in disaster management.

References
Guha-Sapir, D., Parry, L.V., Degomme, O., Joshi, P.C., and Saulina Arnould, J.P.
2006. Risk Factors for Mortality and Injury: Post-Tsunami Epidemiological
Findings from Tamil Nadu. Belgium: CRED.

Joshi, P.C., Guha-Sapir, D., and Srivastava, V.K. 2010. “A Qualitative Account
of the Impact of Disaster: The Case of Flooding in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh”.
The Eastern Anthropologist. 63:3-4. Pp. 479-492.

Khattri, P. 2011. Social Impacts of Disaster: An Anthropological Perspective.

Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. University of Delhi: Department of Anthropology.

Lal, B.B. 1985. Ancient India: Bulletin of the Archaeological Survey of India.
New Delhi: Archaeological Survey of India.

———————. 2009. National Policy on Disaster Management. Ministry of

Home Affairs. National Disaster Management Authority. Government of India.
(The policy is available online, on the website of National Institute of Disaster
Management [NIDM] [Link]

Oliver-Smith, Anthony and Hoffman, Sussana M (ed.). 1999. The Angry Earth:
Disaster In Anthropological Perspective. New York: Routledge.

Sahni, M.R. 1956. “Bio-geological Evidence Bearing on the Decline of Indus

Valley Civilisation”. Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India. Vol.1.
No.1, pp.101-107

Stallings, R.A. 2006. “Methodological Issues”. Handbook of Disaster Research.

(Ed.) Rodriguez H., Quarantelli E.L., and Dynes R.R. Springer. New York: M.E.
Sharpe Inc.

Torry, William.I. 1979. “Antropological Studies in Hazardous Environments:

Past Trends and New Horizons”. Current Anthropology. Volume 20. No.3. pp
517-529.

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Diverse Arenas of Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., & Davis, I. 2004. At Risk: Natural Hazards,
Practicing Anthropology
People’s Vulnerability and Disaster. (2nd edition). London: Routledge.

Website Link:
The Disaster Management Act. 2005. (The act is available online, on the website
of National Institute of Disaster Management [NIDM] [Link]
[Link])

Suggested Reading
Oliver-Smith, Anthony and Hoffman, Sussana M (ed.). 1999. The Angry Earth:
Disaster in Anthropological Perspective. New York: Routledge.

Oliver-Smith, Anthony. 2002. Catastrophe and Culture: The Anthropology of

Disaster. New York: School of American Research Press.

Wisner, B., Blaikie, P., Cannon, T., and Davis, I. 2004. At Risk: Natural Hazards,
People’s Vulnerability and Disaster. (2nd edition). London: Routledge.

Sample Questions
1) What is a disaster? How have anthropologists defined the term?
2) What is disaster management? How can anthropological knowledge be used
for better management of disasters?
3) What are man-made and natural disasters? Give example of each of the
category.
4) What are the challenges in doing fieldwork in disaster situation? How can
anthropologists overcome those challenges?
5) What is community based disaster prepardness (CBDP)?

34