Participation in practice and disaster management: experience of Uttaranchal (India)

Abstract

Purpose

Disaster management is not merely a subject to be taught in class rooms but a habit to be practiced not only by the individual but by the community as a whole. Participation of each and every component of society in practicing disaster management is the key to success. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue.

Design/methodology/approach

Uttaranchal is a newly created state of India having 80 percent of its geographical area under mountainous terrain. The State is prone to various natural disasters such as earthquake, landslide, flash flood, etc. People and the government have learnt a lot from the past experiences and thus a strategy of community based disaster management is being developed to manage the disasters. The analysis is based on the data/information collected for the last seven years (1999‐2005).

Findings

Democracy, by definition, means participation in governance. However, while we have practiced representative democracy for over half a century now we are still far away from a participatory democratic‐mode.

Research limitations/implications

The period under study is short for developing any hypothesis but sufficient care has been taken to consider vital factors.

Practical implications

Community participation in disaster is a common phenomenon in the countries like India. Considering the vast potential of community and putting its participation into practice in different stages of disaster management (prevention, preparedness, mitigation, response and rehabilitation) will certainly help the disaster managers to make a safer society.

Originality/value

Participation in practice is far more complex than in theory. Every sound theory in turn is invariably based on good practice. Practice, good practice, entails intensive and extensive attention to details; the nuts and bolts of it.

Citation

Pande, R.K. (2006), "Participation in practice and disaster management: experience of Uttaranchal (India)", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 425-428. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653560610669909