^{Photo Courtesy: NDTV}

ODISHA SUPER CYCLONE 1999

On 29^th October 1999, the Super Cyclone, also known as Paradip Cyclone, hit Odisha with wind speeds of up to 250 kmph.  It caused the deaths of about 10,000 people, and heavy to extreme damage in its path of destruction. Often termed as the black Friday tragedy, the cyclone flattened lakhs of houses, uprooted trees and destroyed infrastructure. Thousands of livestock were killed, paddy and other crop fields were submerged and hundred thousands of people were affected by the disaster. Life in the coastal Orissa was brought to a standstill. Large areas along the coastline were inundated. The cyclone destroyed or caused damage to lives and properties in the coastal districts such as Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Ganjam. A white paper on the loss and damage profile of the 1999 super cyclone prepared by the State Government in 2000 stated that there were 9,885 human casualties. The paper estimated that 13 lakh hectares of paddy crop, 1.76 lakh hectares of vegetables and 2.57 lakh hectares of other crops were destroyed. The disaster destroyed 22,143 fishing nets and 9,085 boats causing great loss in the lives of the fisherfolk community. The aftermath of cyclone also saw the major loss of livestock in the cyclone-affected area. The report of the government put the loss of cattle heads at 3,15,886, poultry at 18,83,468 and other small animals at 3,16,372.

ActionAid India Response

Soon after the disaster, ActionAid India (AAI) in alliance with Bharat Gyan Vigyan Samiti (BGVS)swung into action and started immediate relief and efforts towards restoration of lives of those affected by the cyclone. AAI and BGVS chose Erasama and Balikuda blocks of Jagatsinghpur district and focused on reaching out to the most affected families and groups including Bengali immigrants, Dalits, women and children at risk  — single women, orphans and destitute, persons with disability and the aged. Two factors guided the decision to work in Jagatsinghpur, one, the intensity of the impact of the cyclone was more in this district and secondly, we got support from the district administration to initiate the process of helping response and recovery. The vulnerable communities were focused on because casualties amongst the Bengali migrants and people staying along the coastline were far more. The Impact of the cyclone was most among the target groups because of their poverty, non-availability of alternative sources of income and social status. Recovery from the cyclone had also been slower for selected target groups because they did not have savings to draw on or get support from relatives who themselves were poor and very often similarly affected. We worked in 337 villages in 40-gram panchayat under Erasama and Balikuda blocks of Jagatsinghpur district and reached out to a population of around 15,000. In the second phase of our interventions, we committed for rehabilitation and reconstruction of the most vulnerable survivors of the super cyclone for a period of at least three years and resolved to contribute to this massive reconstruction effort in a way that is sustainable, long-term and sensitive to the needs of the most vulnerable groups. ActionAid’s major intervention was in the distribution of relief, Food for Work programme,  construction and repair of shelters, enabling road connectivity, providing health services and supplies, ensuring entitlements of the disabled, doing tree plantation, running livelihood support programmes and doing psycho-social counselling.

Milestones Achieved

• Initiated the practice of focusing on single women as a category to work with including widows and aged women.
• Provided psychosocial aid to vulnerable survivors.
• Social audit introduced in disaster response work. After the completion of each phase of Food for Work in the village, a social audit was conducted to capture the voices of people about the quality of the work.
• Within 6 months of the disaster, vulnerability analysis of entire district completed.
• Micro-Level Planning conducted to identify families to whom livelihood support needed to be given.

Our Current Emergency Appeals:

• Maharashtra, Kerala & Karnataka Flood Relief 2019
• Assam & Bihar Flood Relief 2019
• Cyclone Fani (Odisha Cyclone 2019)

Around 8.45 in the morning on India’s 52nd Republic Day — January 26, 2001, a powerful earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale struck Gujarat. The earthquake caused over 13,800 deaths and extensive damage to properties in the state.  Damage to a lesser extent also occurred in the adjoining states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan in India and in Sindh province of Pakistan.

ActionAid India’s Response

Soon after the quake ravaged the state, ActionAid India started relief and rehabilitation efforts in Kutch district, one of the most affected districts of Gujarat, through a network of eight local community-based organizations that called themselves Sneh Samudaya (Caring Community) — that came together to ensure rehabilitation within communities of the most vulnerable among the survivors of the earthquake. These included children who were left without adult protection, single women (including widows), disabled people and aged who are deprived of the care of their families. Village volunteers popularly came to be known as Sneh Karmis were selected and tasked to carry out, supervise and monitor the whole emergency response in their villages. The process of community-based rehabilitation (CBR) was an attempt to ensure the protection and rights of those who were most at risk and those who were also most likely to be forgotten in the process of relief and rehabilitation.

Our interventions covered 127 worst hit villages from four blocks –Anjar, Bhachau, Bhuj and Rapar of Bhuj district.  These villages were selected on the basis of the extent of damage, number of casualties and injuries, number of widows, significant Other Backward Caste, Dalits and Muslims populations.

Child centered activities

To create an enabling environment for children so they could better cope with the post disaster situation day care centres were built in 96 villages that provided much-needed support to over 5,780 children. Apart from various creative and learning activities, regular health check-up andpsycho-social counselling services were provided to the children.Constant efforts were also made to sensitize government officials, NGO functionaries and local community regarding child rights particularly in the context of disaster situation.

Providing food and nutritional support to the most vulnerable families and children

Food and nutritional support to vulnerable families were provided till they were able to create an alternative support system for themselves. Food packets were provided on a regular basis to families who needed them the most. Care was taken to ensure the inclusion of single women without support, aged people and injured and people with disability.

Providing medical and psycho-social counselling support

With the help of Handicap International and local organizations and doctors, several medical camps were organized in affected villages. An ambulance service was also started which was equipped with physiotherapists and social workers visiting rural villages.  Psychosocial counseling was also provided to all needy persons and families.   Nearly 1000 adults and over 5700 children benefited from this support.

Community contributory shelter programme

Interim earthquake-resistant shelters were provided to the most needy families who did not have any other support. Overall, new shelters were constructed for 565 families, while 1147 families were given material and monetary support along with the technical inputs to construct their houses. A total of 389 single women, 8 orphans, 80 old age people, 136 poor families were supported through our shelter programme.

Livelihood support programme

After an extensive livelihood survey along with community consultation processes, 16 self-help groups of women and 3 of men were formed. The women groups were given certain amount from Sneh Samudaya as a revolving fund to start enterprises to support their livelihood.

Food for Work pro gramme

Food for work programme was started with two basic objectives – to generate employment for the needy people and to create community assets through this work.  Within six months, we were able to generate employment of 22,868 person days benefiting 2,858 families. Types of work initiated included cleaning of debris, land leveling, desiltation of ponds, construction of link roads, repairing of ponds, cleaning of religious places.  All these work were carried out under the supervision of village committees.

Building local capacity and promoting local leadership

Efforts were made to educate and make the local community more aware about their rights and entitlements. Educative processes were held to enable the community take informed decisions regarding all interventions and negotiate with external intervening agencies on equal terms. The committees actively participated in the decision-making processes at village level and also took up various responsibilities related to the rehabilitation of their own community.

 Strengthening “Caring responsibility” of community

Constant efforts were made to bring people together, through various social processes to collectively share their problems and grief, reflect back and take up collective action to rebuild their lives. With the help of local communities we set up Sneh Kendras (community centres) in 90 villages. These emerged as the center of all community-based interventions and were used for multipurpose activities like meeting place for villagers, recreational center, daycare center and information resource center.

On 8^th October 2005 a 7.6-magnitude earthquake hit Jammu and Kashmir and caused huge devastation and killed over 1350 people in the valley. Within 24 hours ActionAid launched a quick relief and recovery operation with an objective to reach out to the most marginalised and vulnerable groups in the affected areas.  With active support and participation by our allied organisations — Jammu and Kashmir Yateem Trust, People’s Development Trust and Himalayan Mission and Training (HIMAYAT), our team swung into action and immediate relief measures were started.

ActionAid India Response

Needs Assessment

In collaboration with Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and University of Kashmir, we conducted a comprehensive damage assessment in 122 villages in Baramulla and Kupwara.  The assessment which was carried out by a team of 160 students covered more than 17,000 families in over 60 villages in Kupwara and Baramulla districts which were hit hard by the quake.

Immediate Relief

In the first three months of our response efforts, we reached out to 5341 badly affected families in 61 villages in Kupawara and Baramulla districts.  The households were provided with immediate relief items – both food and non-food – which were essential for them to survive and fight back. More than 3500 people were provided with medical aid through 23 health camps organised in the most affected villages.

Shelter Support

Apart from relief, our focus in the first 3 months was also on providing temporaryshelter  to those who had lost their houses in the quake.  In that phase, over 1700 temporary shelters were raised in Karnah, Kupwara, Uri, Rafiabad, and Kandi Baramulla areas. 

In the second phase of our response, which started from January 2006, we kept our intervention more focused on 30 most affected villages in Uri and Karnah areas.  We built additional 1500 temporary shelters in this phase.

Cash for Work Programme

From January 2006, we started our efforts towards livelihood restoration of over 300 most affected (mostly women-headed) families in both the districts.  Through ‘cash for work’ programmes, we helped the communities earn some income while providing labour to re-establish public infrastructure facilities like water provisions, sanitation facilities, and restoration of homes among others.

All these activities were carried out under the supervision and leadership of Village Development Committees set up with representation of local people. The objective of setting up these committees was to engage the community in the development process.

Milestones Achieved

• 25,097 work days generated for the affected population in 30 villages
• 502 toilets built in 23 villages
• Temporary school structures developed in 23 villages
• Local women were recruited for these schools
• 38,000 fruit and non-fruit trees planted to help supplement villagers livelihood and also to check soil erosion and landslides.
• Apple trees were introduced to areas in Uri and Karnah where apple trees were never grown.

Preparedness

The devastation caused by the earthquake made us realize that preparedness for such disasters is highly essential.  Soon, we started a Disaster Preparedness Programme in partnership with National Service Scheme (NSS) of Kashmir division.  By February 2007, we were able to trainabout 300 teachers and more than 3000 school and college-going students.  We had also initiated a community-based early warning and preparedness programme in 31 villages of Baramulla and Kupwara districts that are highly vulnerable to such disasters.

There have been huge infrastructural damage caused by the catastrophe. Continuous rains and landslides damaged over 1500 roads and 154 bridges, while over 2,000 houses were destroyed. According to Government reports 18,228 cattle have now been killed and 20,000 hectares of agricultural land was severely damaged.

ActionAid India’s Response

ActionAid with its partner organisations, namely JANDESH, ARPAN, Mount Valley Development Association and UJJS. were quick to reach out to the people affected by the disaster with immediate relief assistance. ActionAid focused its intervention in 128 villages spread across four districts – Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Tehri Garhwal and Pithoragarh District.

Followings are the key interventions

Food and Nutrition Support: Dry ration kits were provided to 1515 families which ensured food and nutritional security of 7575 people for 45 days in 3 districts

Non-food items: Solar lanterns have been provided to 600 families to lighten the shelter and helping around 1600 children for their study.  2400 blankets (2 blankets per family) have been provided to 1200 families, 600 families were provided with kitchen utensils. We also distributed hygiene kits among 1,200 women.

Shelter Support: Tarpaulins and emergency shelters have been provided to 1447 families providing shelter to 7235 individuals.

Women’s Protection: 84 community meetings with the 1200 women about trafficking threats, sexual harassment, psycho social care, violence against women and girls have been carried out by local trained community volunteers. Vigil groups have been formed for the protection of women.

Psycho-social care has also been provided to women and children showing manifestations such as sleeplessness, stress disorder and anxiety. Trainings have also been carried out to to strengthen the skill of the field coordinators on psycho-social care.

Health Camps: Health camps have been organized in different villages, where people from surrounding villages also turned up in large numbers. Camps have been organized in three village clusters – Village Chami , Gothi and Ghattabagarh , where in more than 200 women , children and men have benefitted .

Education Support: With timely support from the Share and Care Foundation,  ActionAid was able to reach out to around 1,097 school children and helped them improve and continue their education. School kits were provided to the children who had lost their belongings in the floods in order to equip them to continue their education in 16 worst affected villages.

^{Sashi Jani, 65, at her house damaged in the cyclone in Ganjam district of Odisha  Photo: Srikanth Kolari/ActionAid}

Cyclone Phailin which hit coastal Odisha on 9th October, 2013 caused huge destruction of shelter and livelihood in Ganjam district, while the subsequent flooding triggered by the heavy rainfall that followed the cyclone left a trail of devastation in Ganjam, Puri, Mayurbhanj, Bhadrak and Balasore districts, affecting more than 13,235,981 people and damaging  651,184 hectares of crop land.

ActionAid India and its allies in the affected areas were quick to respond, launching an immediate relief and rehabilitation support to the families affected. ActionAid was also leading a consortium supported by European Union’s humanitarian arm –European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO). The emergency response was carried out in the most affected areas of Ganjam,  Puri and Mayurbhanj districts and on a priority basis it covered vulnerable groups including scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward castes, single women, minorities, people living with HIV, and people with disability.

ActionAid India Response

Our response efforts focused on three major humanitarian sectors such as food and livelihood, shelter and water sanitation and hygiene (WASH) to support the worst affected communities so as to recover from the devastation of cyclone and floods. Our intervention benefitted a total of 12,627 households in four highly affected districts of the state.

Our focus was to help them enhance the community’s food security and increase their access to safe, inclusive and disaster resilient shelter. The intervention aimed at ensuring high standards of public health promotion through WASH actions including safe and sufficient drinking water provisioning and safe hygienic living (environment) conditions for the affected communities.

Immediate Response

We started our emergency response in areas where we had long presence of working with community through our allies.  We reached out to the most marginalised and vulnerable groups with immediate relief – dry ration, drinking water and other non-food items such as immediate survival kit, hygiene kit and other household articles. 

^{Relief distribution at a cyclone-hit village in Puri district  Photo: ActionAid}

Livelihood enhancement support

• 190 householdswere provided with boats and nets for restoration of their livelihood as fisher folk.
• Support for kitchen garden was provided to 1000 households along with provision of millets for cereal consumption.
• Exclusive millet farming was supported in 500 acres of land.
• ActionAid facilitated convergence with Department of Horticulture (Government of Odhisa) to provide different fruit bearing tree saplings for 3180 households in three districts
• 58 families were provided with monetary assistance of Rs 24,000 to repair their paan baraja (betel vine fields) destroyed during the cyclone.
• A total of 531 families were provided with non-farm support such as goats and chickens to restore their livelihood. In Ganjam and Puri districts,  ActionAid provided chicks as support to 323 households, while 208 families were covered under the goat distribution programme.  Of them 468 families belonged to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe categories.
• 739 households were also linked with MGNREGA scheme helping them get work.
• 400 community members were part of skill building training programmes inmasonry and carpentry on cyclone- and flood-resilient structures.
• 750 women were part of leadership programme focusing on disaster preparedness and relief measures.

Cash For Work Support

ActionAid India worked in 92 villages of the three most affected districts through cash-for-work programmes to help affected families generate some income to help their lives return to normalcy.  A total of 1403 families benefitted from this programme under which several types of work was carried out. Those included repairing of damaged houses, renovation and excavation of ponds, cleaning of drains, construction of public roads, betel vine repairing, land development, cashew nuts field preparation, repairing of embankment among others.

Shelter support

Shelter support was provided to 213 households. It included construction of new disaster resilient transitional shelters for 73 households and assistance for repairing partially damaged shelters to 140 families.

Community Engagement

Village Level Disaster Response Committees (VLC) were set up to help in identification and selection of beneficiaries support, to monitor project activities,  conduct social audits and serve as a grievance redressal cell. Procurement of materials for the project was routed through the VLCs,  which also served important function in conflict resolution and decision-making. The VLCs  also  helped in liaison with government for accessing entitlements.