Unicef Cbdp Final Report 2008 09

Completion Report

2008-2009

Indranarayanpur Nazrul Smriti Sangha (INSS)Vill.-Indranarayanpur, PO- Ramnagar Abad, PS- Pathar Pratima, Dist.- South 24 Paraganas, Pin 743349,

Mob.: 9830185170, Email: [email protected] , [email protected]

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Community Based Disaster Preparedness

(CBDP)

Less loss of life and property. Reduction of vulnerability and sufferings. Normal life situation even in disaster

Time

Standard

of life

Disaster

Prepared CommunityWell- off Community

Somewhat PreparedCommunity

Un PreparedCommunity

Disaster Period

Disaster and Life Perspective

Time

Standard

of life

Disaster

Disaster Period

Disaster and an ideal Preparedness Perspective

Community Based Disaster Preparedness

1. Executive Summary

‘Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) is based on the belief that people have the potential to take timely and appropriate actions to reduce the impact of natural disaster through a process of behaverioul change, if sufficient capacity building initiatives are taken up at community level and family level. The goal of the programme was to build their capacity to reduce the loss of life and property and provide support to strengthen their coping mechanisms and also use of appropriate local technologies.

The programme methodology involved community and family at all levels, of its planning and implementation. The ‘CBDP’ Programme started with the activity of community mobilization/family interventions and establishing linkages with other stakeholders of the community such as Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) personnel and local Govt. officials. Activities such as Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) in true sense as methodology not merely an activity conducted to involve community members in collecting and analyzing data related to their own vulnerability and existing resources in the context of natural disaster.

The ‘Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) Project addressed to build up the capacity of the vulnerable community to cope up with the disaster. The capacity building initiatives in the project ensured the sustainability and ownership through participation. It is understood that community has its own potentials to face the disaster but may not be in organized way to do it. INSS in addressing the issue facilitated the process to strengthen the capacity of the community.

‘Community Based Disaster Preparedness (CBDP) is a process-oriented approach to ensure participation of all stakeholders to reduce loss and damages through capacity building initiatives.

The above mentioned diagram ‘A’ shows the community situation and their standard of living during disaster. It shows during the disaster well - off community come back to their normal life easily because of their organized life and bondage with each other. The other section of the community called unprepared community

in

disaster, takes few years to come back to their normal life but most of time they remain in the same situation.

The diagram B shows if the community is prepared to face disaster systematically they can come back to normal life easily with effective manner. The disaster becomes the part and parcel of the lifestyle of community. The more preparedness - the more strength and confidence, through a difficult process of changing mindsets among all stakeholders.

Both the diagram shows the changes in knowledge, skills and mindsets. The project in turn of changing knowledge, skills and mindsets ensured the less loss of life, property. The project directly addressed to three fore fonts:

‘Community Based Disaster

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A

B

Bishnupur-I

Falta

Sagar

Diamond Harbour-I

Bishnupur-II

Namkhana

Kakwip

Kulpi

Magrahat-I

Diamond Harbour-II

Budge Budge-I

Budge Budge-II

MahestolaThakurpukurmetiabruz Bhangar-I

Baruipur

Magrahat-II

Pathar Pratima

Mandirbazar

Mathurapur-IJaynagar-II

Mathurapur-II

Jaynagar-I

Sonarpur

Canning-II

Basanti

Kultali

Canning-I

Gosaba

South 24 Pargnas

Patharpratima

Bishnupur-I

Falta

Sagar

Diamond Harbour-I

Bishnupur-II

Namkhana

Kakwip

Kulpi

Magrahat-I

Diamond Harbour-II

Budge Budge-I

Budge Budge-II

MahestolaThakurpukurmetiabruz Bhangar-I

Baruipur

Magrahat-II

Pathar Pratima

Mandirbazar

Mathurapur-IJaynagar-II

Mathurapur-II

Jaynagar-I

Sonarpur

Canning-II

Basanti

Kultali

Canning-I

Gosaba

South 24 Pargnas

Patharpratima

Preparedness (CBDP) programme in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal be implemented by Indranarayanpur Nazrul Smriti Sangha in 45 Gram Sansads (the lowest development structure under Panchayet Raj act) across Sagar and Mathurapur-II blocks of the district.

2.0 Exact geographical Location and population Dynamics

Sundarbans, the majestic mangrove delta in the southern tip of West Bengal, leading to Bay of Bengal is one of the most diversified bio-mass in the world. Known for its abounding flora and fauna, the delta is also the home for almost four-and-half million people. The Sundarban that has created creative verses within artistic minds is also known for the terror it regularly unleashes on the hapless millions who depend on it for survival.

The area called Sundarbans is spread over two countries (India and Bangladesh). It is a network of rivers, channels and creeks, encompassing 54 major islands and hundreds of smaller ones. The changing course of the rivers, developing landmasses and vanishing islands makes the delta a dynamic entity. The Sundarbans in India is about 9500 skm in area, of which roughly 60 percent have been earmarked as classified forest area and thus, not open for human inhabitation. The delta falls in two districts of North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas, with the latter accounting for over three-fourths of the land. Of the 19 administrative blocks that forms the delta, thirteen are in South 24 Parganas. The major urban centers in the delta are Kakdwip, Raidighi and Canning, gateways to the interior part of Sundarban. The delta starts from about 80 kms South of Kolkata and stretches for another 120 kms from there.

Pathar Pratima, Namkhana, Mathurapur II, Kakdwip, Sagar, Kultali, Gosaba and Basanti are the blocks in the South Sundarban area that received the brunt of natural calamities. The above blocks constitute nearly 45 percent of the Sundarban population. The intricate river networks form the lifeline for the people, aiding movement, transport and communication, despite its irregularity, unpredictability and lack of any systematic transport system. Bulk of the farming community is small and marginal land owners. There are a large percentage of scheduled caste and minority groups, constituting over 60 percent of the population. Tribal population, living in closely formed clusters, is scattered around the blocks. In terms of numbers, the tribal people constitute only a negligible 3% of the population. The tribal communities of Sundarbans are basically from the Santhal Parganas, brought centuries ago as slaves to the delta.

The major occupation is land farming and fishing. Almost 80 percent of the population is engaged in farming, farm related labour, fishing, fishing labour and unskilled daily labour. However, despite its huge potential in terms of land and water availability, almost 70 percent of the people are denied of employment even for one third of a year. Thus, poverty and lack of employment opportunities, thanks to prolonged negligence and apathy has contributed to the overall precarious scenario in the delta, both in social and economic terms.

The unique geographic positioning of Sundarbans has made it one of the most calamities prone in the region. People move from one calamity to another, be it floods, thunderstorms or cyclones. Poor become poorer and unable to recover from one calamity, they fall from the calamity to a calamity process, an unending cycle that has destroyed the will and spirit of the Sundarban community.

Floods strike the delta 2.3 times a year. Unlike other areas where floods are followed by bumper crops, in Sundarbans they are dreaded by the people. Being in close vicinity to the ocean, tidal floods that cause havoc in

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the delta inundates the land with saline water. Once saline water enters the land, there is no way out for the people. They loose their cultivation, paddy growth decays, ponds get salivated, no drinking water is possible, animals go thirsty and chaos reigns in the village alleys. So much so, that at times, cultivation becomes impossible for up to four years in a stretch. Salinity of the top soil is difficult to be washed away. It has to dilute itself through fresh rains and often, when the salinity starts vanishing, a fresh inundation threatens the very sustenance of the families who are dependent on farming.

Thanks to the centuries of calamity experience, the people of Sundarbans have their own way of protecting their lives, but not their livelihoods. Today, the disasters in the delta are slow killers. People have learned how to tide over the flooding waters and move themselves to safety. But they cannot carry their land to safety.

The only mechanism that the government had to combat the floods was embankments. Year after year, long stretches of embankments are made and repaired, only to be breached and broken at the first rush of waters. The embankments have become a way of business for the vested interests in the local government and administration.

It is estimated of the 200,000 hectares of estuaries that the delta possesses; only about 40,000 hectares are utilized for fishing. Sundarban has the potential to supply fish to the entire North and eastern India, but sadly enough, one can find fish from Andhra Pradesh being sold in its inner markets. Fishery, one of the most potent economic activities that the delta possesses is in shambles. Today, the hundreds of thousands of poor and small time fishermen have been swamped aside by the big trawlers and the nexus they have with powerful middlemen, political bodies and local mafia. Unscrupulous damage done to the river banks, its eco system and environment has destroyed the bio-marine in the river network. In the name of that elusive pot of gold by catching and selling prawn spawns, people have for years destroyed other varieties of marine lives.

Every February over the last decade and half, villages in Sunderbans area are abruptly emptied. Sunderbans is “mono-cropped”. In other words, it now produces just one type of crop, harvested at one time of year. So busloads of men leave for the agriculturally rich Hooghly and Burdwan districts, seeking work on the roads and fields there, in the rice mills and construction sites or whatever they could manage to hold on.It has been found that displacement of labour from agricultural work and increasing outward migration are the most important change on the agricultural scene in the past deaden and half. This outbound migration of male members has also resulted in an increase in the ratio number of female agricultural workers in their areas. Thus, today, women who were predominantly confined within their homes and tending to the family members are forced to come out and engage in economic activities, while continuing with their engagement at home front.

At the same time, the number of marginal workers have gone up significantly from 8.1 per cent in 1991 to 14.2 per cent in 2002 while there was a sharp fall in the percentage of “main workers” (more than 183 days a year), especially male workers, coming from rural areas. The figures thus indicate both casualization and feminization of the workforce in rural areas, with the ratio of marginal women workers becoming larger and more significant, while men are more and more moving out in search of the elusive employment.

The cumulative effect of protracted calamities, inability of the people to cope with the rising disasters and interlined poverty and lack of support, infrastructure and empathy from successive governments and administration has put the people in jeopardy. Violence against women, atrocities, armed robbery, trafficking and forced migration is direct consequences of the disaster-poverty cycle in the delta.

3.0. Operational framework

3.1.Origin of the request

The CBDP programme was initiated in 45 Gram sansads of the two blocks of South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal from March 2008 to 2009.

Sansad and Booth No. of Mathurapur-II (3 GP) and Sagar Block (3 GP) CBDP Area of Operation:

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Block Gram Panchayet

Village/Sansad Sansad No. Booth No.

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Sagar Block Ganga Sagar Ganga Sagar Colony 11 85Ganga Sagar 13 87Ganga Sagar (W) 12 86Ganga Sagar 10 84Ganga Sagar 9 83

Dhablot Mission-1 3 92Kapil Vidya. 1 90Madhyapara 2 91Mission-2 4 93Rashpur 16 104Chemaguri FP 5 94Purbapara FP 6 95Prasadpur Jr. Basic 17 105Prasadpur FP 18 106Rashmoni 7 96

Moriganga-1(MG-1)

Kastala 1 4Pakhirala 6 9Silpara 9 12Khirkultala 2 5Sikarpur 10 13Sapkhali 3 6Chapatala 4 7Hetal Ketki 7 10Pathar Pratima 8 11Kachuberia 5 8

Mathurapur-II

Raidighi Gayenpara Purba 1 4624 No. Lot 2 47Sikari Para 11 56Taltala Mistri Para 12 57Gayenpara Paschim 5 50

Kankandighi Purkait Para/Halderpara 1 70Daktarergheri 4 73Naskarpara 2 71Sipai Para U.dk.Mudi Para 3 72Munda Para 5 74

Nagendrapur Khatua Para 10 114Giri Para 11 115Nagendrapur Uttar Para 1 105Purba Sridharpur Paschim Para 9 113Purba Sridharpur Purba Para 3 107Hat Para-Keoratola-Christianpara 2 106Chatterjee Para- Halderpara 7 111Mandal Para 8 112Purkait Para 6 110Prodhan Para 5 109

3.2. Arguments lead to the choice of the CBDP project

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The assessments done by INSS with the guidance of senior consultants during the planning phase indicated that there are several key developmental gaps that necessitates some contextual and community based programme with the objective of increasing their capacity to cope with natural disaster (Flood) using their own resources.

1. People got used to the frequent disasters and have found a way of living with the floods, there appears to be two basic attitudes - one is of self-confidence with some coping strategies and the other, a sense of apathy or hopelessness, ‘leaving it to the fate’. Saying that floods are sent by God. In any case Flood act as a massive threat to the development of the society and cause massive loss of life and livelihood during disaster. Low risk perception and absence of any organized effort for disaster preparedness at community level. People consider flood as a regular phenomena and have a feeling that nothing could be done by them to reduce the impact of disaster.

2. South 24 Paraganas more specifically project area have a deep rooted social structures, systems and traditions that have withstood the upheavals of history, an important factor to be considered when we speak of mindsets. Social norms, age-old distinction of caste based occupation and segregation are still prevalent in the district. In other way a Very high dependency on external relief during the time of disaster.

3. Society of the project area is complex in structure and nature. They are distributed in various castes and sub-groups. The Other Backwards class (OBC) forms the major chunk of population. Next comes the Scheduled Castes (SC). Backward Castes- In other words High level of social and economic exclusion act as great challenge for any community based problem. During the flood relief programme, it was a great challenge to manage the high level of dominance by high caste people in distribution process.

4. The vulnerability and Capacity Analysis

Aspects Vulnerability Capacity

Organizational(SHG, CBOs, PRIs, School, different committees etc)

1. Distribution of relief, monopolized by the PRI and the influential people. (Relief during disaster is one of the most powerful instruments of exploitation and subjugation).

2. The structures within the society are exploitative. The weaker sections have no voice.

3. Even at meetings they can not speak up against the powerful.

4. Schemes of government do not help poor people to develop their life style.

5. PRI members take money from the poor people in order to give the scheme.

6. Lack of capable teachers and lack of organized education is barrier for education of the poor.

7. Children don’t get timely midday meal.8. Because of ignorance people are cheated

by other people.9. Outsiders induce them to give them

something but they don’t give them.

1. People got physical and psychological support from the organization.2. Organization increases the people’s capacities especially for women and reduce the vulnerabilities.3. People are united by the organization through various meetings.4. Organization brings equality among all the people irrespective of caste and religion.

Social (caste, religion, gender, rich, poor

1. The weaker sections (the poorest) have a tendency to accept what is said by the powerful without questioning.

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etc) 2. Ignorance and lack of critical awareness makes them to accept whatever is said by the educated.

3. Casteism is acutely practiced and it promotes discrimination and untouchability in the society.

4. People of low castes live in separate 5. Religion is used by the influentials to

divide people for political reasons; different rituals and customs of religion are made to be barriers for the people by the vested interest groups.

6. Males take decision most of the time; women can not go out without the permission of their husbands.

7. Most women do not know what the income of the husband is.

8. Rich people don’t help poor people. There are money-lending and other forms of exploitation of the poorer people by the less poor within the same caste /community.

9. There is double exploitation of the poor – from the higher castes and also from within the community.

Economic( livelihood, occupation, accessibility to resources, government and NGO presence)

1. The Poor people take everything as fate and also have a mentality of leaving everything to the fate.

2. There is a sense of hopelessness. Poor people do not really strive to improve their condition, they think it is useless.

3. Most people do not have sufficient income to protect their necessary things; .people borrow money at high interest during the time of disaster.

4. Poor people spend lot of money in drinking alcohol though they have less income, which is also affecting their health and they spend for treatment.

5. they earn less money but they spent more.

6. many people are unemployed 7. in NGOs people don’t get sufficient salary

Geographical( land zone, river areas, low lying areas etc)

1. Poor people inhabit the flood prone areas as land in safer places is expensive.

2. Low lying areas are more vulnerable due to water logging. Low areas near the river are more vulnerable as water enters first and recedes last.

3. Living in low places increases the damages.

4. Living on river embankment is risky if there is a breach.

1. High places reduces the damages .

Human( vulnerable

1. Specially vulnerable persons – like the specially challenged, pregnant mothers,

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individuals and groups – the specially challenged, pregnant mothers, lactating mothers, children below 5 and excluded population etc)

nourishing mothers, children below 5 years are more vulnerable because they need the help of others;

2. Specially vulnerable groups – the poorest section of the community have special problems

3. Children of 5-10 years are most vulnerable to traumatic stress as trauma makes them to regress and usually they are the neglected group in the relief camps.

3.3. SWOT analysis of the organisation

Strength: Weakness Opportunities: Threat: Committed and

effective leadership Experienced Staff Team spirit and

purposefulness among the staff

Hard work of the INSS Staff

Financial support and good will of the unicef

Ability to win peoples’ good will, trust and Support

Good rapport with Government officials

25 years of working experiences in Social service sector

Outstanding women leaders from SHGs

Distance of office location keeps away from the target people

Inadequate infrastructure facilities

Lack of own transport facility

Minimum qualification of the staff hinders the professionalism of the organization.

Lack of net- working with other local NGOs

Easy to approach the government officials

coverage of maximum villages for the programme operation

People’s cooperation and collaboration

Government’s schemes

Ready of the staff and the community

Natural calamity (Frequent floods)

Imbalance in attitude of the community

Corruption among Govt. Officials

Fear of Conversion Strong castism The illiteracy of the

people

3.4. Coordination with authorities and other organisations working in the region or in same area of activity.

Coordination with authorities and other organisations is helpful as well as ready to cooperate in our development activities they encourage our coordination to carry out the government related programs. We are recognized and identified by our sincere hard work and effective achievement in the development sector in our region. So they invite us to carry out the welfare activities which formulated by the local government. The authorities give their valuable presence in our necessary programs.

4. Project

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4.1. Goal: Enhancing the capacity of the community to reduce the impact of flood and take informed and proactive action through CBDP process.

5. Key achievement under specific objectives:

CBDP is community centric and it is based on a whole community approach facilitating most vulnerable groupsUnder CBDP, the local community with special focus on vulnerable groups was taken as the primary focus of attention and treated as the common unit, which gets affected in any disaster. Further, whether a disaster is major or minor, national of local, it is the vulnerable people at the community or village level who suffer its adverse effects. They have been able to use their own coping and survival strategies to face and respond to the situation since ages. Only they are not organized or built upon their traditional knowledge and skills with advance local technologies to face the immediate impact of disaster. Considering these aspects the entire approach of CBDP was designed to be community centric. CBDP relies on the capacity of community/vulnerable and so did not aim to infuse major material input to the community. Every individual member was equally important to the programme and there was no social targeting in CBDP. The CBDP worked for bringing a change of mindset among all the stakeholders of it

CBDP requires a change of mindset of implementing agencies to have confidence the capacity of people. It rested on the belief that even the most vulnerable person has the capacity to take care of himself if proper guidance is provided. On the other hand, CBDP brought a change of mindset of community from dependency on relief to preparedness in the context of natural disaster.

Ensured the claimed participation of the community

One of the uniqueness of the CBDP concept is that it does not create any separate organizational structure to implement it; it works through the existing structure. People’s constitutional right to participate in the decision making process (participatory democracy) was incorporated into the methodology. At the same time, CBDRR facilitated the generation of a feeling at the community (encompassing all subsets of it) that they themselves are responsible to take care of themselves and the less vulnerable section would take care of the more vulnerable sections. Participation from all groups, men, women, youth, elderly, and persons with disability would ensure the proper functioning of the programme. All are stakeholders (community, PRI, Government officials) in the programme and the programme methodology aspired to bring all of them together.

CBDP focused on preparedness for natural disasters ( flood)

CBDP focused on preparedness for natural disasters where the measures for preparedness are identified and developed by the community and INSS took the role of the facilitator. No material input was provided for any mitigation activity but community took some steps to reduce the impact of disaster by taking some action by themselves and using the local resources or tapping the government facilities through linkage and advocacy. Preparedness included some steps that had to be taken by individuals and at the same time some preparedness activities were conducted at family level and community level. In each case, the community kept in mind the special needs of vulnerable groups develops strategies for disaster preparedness.

CBDP Programme management was based on a bottom up approach

In the process of programme implementation, the INSS involved its staffs from all levels in planning and decision-making so that the programme became a true example of bottom up programme management.

CBDP aimed to make it sustainable endeavor for disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction

CBDP aimed at a sustainable system where community got motivated and empowered to move forward without any external support.

5.0. Description of the project activities done and results achieved

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INSS has well established network and long standing presence with the community in the selected villages. They have already implemented women empowerment programme in those villages and promoted 32 SHGs for women with the community. These groups have started savings and credit activities. The strength lies of the INSS on selected areas are the existing SHGs used as platform to initiate the programme. Practically, these groups and networks used as the entry point to the community for initiating CBDP programme. Specific activities for CBDP implementation designed during the programme with active involvement of the other community members as disaster is everybody’s problem. This could be considered as the uniqueness of the CBDP methodology. But the guiding principles remain the same for the programme. Involvement of community at every level of the project acted as the accelerating force behind it.

Activities Undertaken

Sl.No. Particulars Unit Target Achievements No. of participants

1 PLA /VCA 45 45 45 3375

2 Focus Group Discussion 45 45 45 270

3 Gram Sansad Action Plan Preparation

45 45 45 320

4 Gram Sansad Mobilization 45 45 45 2475

5 GP level meeting 6 6 6

6 Para level meeting 60 60 60 10500

7 Mothers’ meeting 45 45 45 1575

8 SHG meeting 15 15 15 300

9 Mock drill 45 45 45 11250

10 CD show 45 45 45 2500

11 FSK, CSK,ORS demonstration 45 45 46 813

12 Swimming competition 45 45 45 11000

13 Capacity building training on Project Staff

0  0   3 100

14 Training/demo on raising hand pumps

45 45 45 315

15 Training/demo on raising temporary shelters

45 45 45 725

16 Training on First Aid Box  45 45 45 678

17 Training /Demo on boat making  45 45 45 1620

18 Training /Demo on life jacket  45 45 4519 Task Force Group Formation &

Training  45 45 451620

22 Meeting with animators & Staff  12 12 9 30

Briefing of the activities

Initial Activities

Identification of project stakeholders and project areas Identification of vulnerable people, areas and need assessment using participatory methods Establishing linkages with various stakeholders of the project and following that throughout the year

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Rapport building

Inter Personal Communication with the families built the rapport specially with the vulnerable community. The IPC done to strengthen the community and social mobilization activities looking at the need of changing mindsets.

Small group meetings initiated the community bonding and understanding the need and purpose of CBDRR thus strengthening the programme.

Meeting with the key persons using them as social gatekeepers other than the existing SHGs in the project area.

Networking & Advocacy

Organizing and facilitating District and Block level meetings with PRI, Govt. officials, other agencies to established linkage and strengthened the disaster preparedness activities amongst the stakeholders

Facilitated Gram Panchayat level meetings to involve and undertake ownership.

Assessment of vulnerabilities and Capacities

o Mobilized people to participate in Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) exercise, it considered as a tool of participation

o Initiated PLA exercise in each ward to understand the vulnerabilities and capacities of the community thus resulting in decreasing vulnerabilities and increasing capacities through strengthening coping up mechanism.

o Follow up of PLA methodologies with other community member for triangulation and consensus among all and for further actions; this included small meetings in hamlets too.

Formation and Strengthening of disaster Management Task Force in village Level

o Disaster Management Task force formation through FGDso Skill Training for Task Force on early warning, search and rescue, Family survival kits, Child survival

kits, rescue items like local small boats, banana raft, ORS, Tube well lifting, water purification, life jacket preparation, community contingency fund, first aid etc.

o Enactment of Disaster Preparedness drills at the village level

Preparation and implementation of Community contingency plano Mobilized community for community Contingency planso Preparation of Community Contingency Planso Updating Contingency Plans to include increasing vulnerabilities

Community Based Preparedness/Family Level Preparedness strategies and activities

Demonstration of Early warning, rescue, FSK, Temporary Shelter, Temporary toilets, Health and Hygine,Life Jacket, Tube well lifting,ORS,First Aid etc separately other than the taskforce with the community members through small demonstrative activities among all the community member to change mindset and take preparedness measures. All these demonstration were based on the local coping up mechanism supported by the technical knowledge.

Information Education and Communication-IEC

Developing IEC materials on different Coping up mechanism undertaken by the communities through case studies, Process documents etc.

Community level awareness campaign on CBDP (Rallies,etc)

Monitoring and Evaluation

Common Review meeting cum Workshops at the organization level other than the weekly staff meeting this supplemented with the visit of the technical person at the field level regularly. In the common review meeting done to strengthen the capacity of the staff on technical issues related to disaster preparedness including capacity building initiative among the staff to implement the programme smoothly.

Capacity Building

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Staff Training conducted on the needed technical inputs for the programme at organization level. This ensured the staff capacity building through direct training methodology in the field.

CBDP activities were conducted at community level keeping in mind the objectives of the programme. As mentioned in objective 1, community capacity would be enhanced to cope with disaster and reduce the loss of life and livelihood during disaster. Basically the objective is to facilitate the generation of consciousness regarding the nature and dimension of natural disaster at the community level so that people can take informed decision and remain prepared to reduce the immediate impact of natural disasters. The focus would be at one disaster (which is most prominent in the region, i.e. flood) but the activities would try to strengthen the capacity of community to plan for other community development issues.

For objective 2, emphasis was given on moderating disaster related behavioral changes towards natural calamities and helping communities to feel that they have the potential to stay prepared and reduce the impact of natural disaster. Moreover, this change would encourage of community should realize their right to remain prepared for natural disaster. Motivating the vulnerable community to believe in the maxim of self-help in the context of natural disasters. The objective is to help people to rely on the importance of preparedness rather than considering relief materials as the only support in the context of natural disaster.

To achieve objective 3, emphasis will be given on involving government and other stakeholders in planning process. Here planning stands for the planning at the community level in the context of natural disasters1.

To achieve objective 4, emphasis would be given to community driven initiatives, building on their self help capacities. The program will ensure livelihood security and improved water and hygiene together with improved health seeking behaviour among the targeted communities.

5.1. The above said objectives attained through the change in mindset in the community. The activities were designed to change mindsets:

• From relief to preparedness• From dependence to self-reliance• From victim to a stakeholder • From passiveness to an active role in preparedness• From helplessness (dependence on fate) to control over events• From supplies to community empowerment

Thus Challenge of :• Creation of a culture of preparedness

The steps followed to achieve the change in Mindset in the community

Awareness Building

Village Meetings were the initial activity to sensitize community members and other stakeholders on the concept of disaster preparedness. It was to mobilize, organize, and make the village communities aware of disaster preparedness/risk reduction leading them to empowerment and mitigate the impact of disaster. INSS as implementing agencies promoted these activities, during the initial months, focused on meeting with the village communities to spread the concept of disaster preparedness and how to sustain themselves.

IPC with families on various issues related to CBDP

1

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This has remained a regular activity of the programme throughout the period. Animators have made house visits and discussed various issues related to flood and the ways the members of the families have faced that. Basically, house visits act as the accelerator behind all the programme activities. Informal discussions with the family members were conducted with and objective of motivating them to reflect on their own capacity to take an organized effort to reduce the impact of flood. These visits also help the programme staffs to disseminate information regarding various meetings or community level activities like PLA. Moreover special visits were also made to disseminate information on specific issues like FSK, ORS preparation and preparedness measures during flood.

Participatory Learning and Action

Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) is an output-oriented process used for obtaining information and applying it in a pre-determined way. The main advantage of using PLA tools is that it involves the entire community in the information sharing and consensus building process.Various tools of PLA are Resource and Social mapping, Transacts, Seasonality Charts, Institutional linkages etc.

The women and vulnerable community attendance in PLA exercises will be taken as high priority.

Linkage Meetings

There meetings held with the local government bodies, local leaders and other officials in two phases. In the first phase, the objective was to create a relationship with them for their assistance and cooperation. Apart from this, it was to familiarize the local bodies with the concept of CBDP and its benefits. The success of these meetings is significant for the approval and implementation of plans, and dissemination to every community member

Task force formation

Task force comprises community members volunteered into pre-determined groups coming into effect with the approach rainy season, (flood). They were the nucleus for the community getting prepared for the advent of floods.

Task force Trainings

After formation of these groups, they were trained in their respective specialized tasks. A date was fixed for conducting training programs. This training imparts information on duties, roles and responsibility as well as specialized activities like making of temporary shelters, building of boats, life jackets, rendering First Aid, treatment for snakebites etc.

Women were a major part of task force activities and in the following activities they are very effective: First Aid, Early Warning, Health, sanitation and Hygiene.

Family Level Preparedness

Preparedness is the essence of the project. This was done at the family as well as community level. Families were made aware on important documents, food items, fuel, medicines etc, in case of any emergency. The concept of Family Survival kits were shared with them. Its rationale was taught to them through various intervention strategies. Strategies for motivating families for preparedness include home visits & general meeting.

Community Level Preparedness

The community is mobilized to prepare themselves in the advent of flood. This level of preparedness needs participation of community and local government officials. Strategies developed integrating various resources of

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the community. As apart of this process Community fund mobilization for emergency, Grain bank etc initiatives will be taken. Trainings will be given on various life-skills and new innovations will be developed. Construction of temporary shelters, toilets, boat, and life jacket will be the part of the curriculum for the community. Every booth will have its defined plan of action for disaster management.

Preparation of Plan of Action

The community’s Plan of Action to meet a natural disaster is prepared by themselves, facilitated by INSS. After information of the village is obtained through Participatory Learning and Action exercise, with regard to natural and human resources, Institutional linkages, support systems, land features and other; they are systematically reflected in the plan. The plan states number of task groups formed, list of vulnerable people in the village, preparedness strategies undertaken by the community and the role of local government. The Plan of Action is ‘Zero Budget’ and will completely be shouldered by the community.

Gram Sansad Mobilization

The Gram Sansad (Village Assemblies) is an important component in CBDP process. It endorses legality and makes the plan official. Once the Panchayat endorses the Plan of Action, the community owns it. It ensures the Community Based Disaster Preparedness plan for the development of the village and gives it a sustainable form.

7.0. Criteria of selection of the villages and beneficiaries:

The area and direct beneficiary (as whole community) was selected on the basis of the following. During the process of selection of the area has been clearly established with the Panchayat Raj System. So it was possible to select the areas and beneficiaries according to the following criteria and to identify the most vulnerable areas.

Inhabitants of the most disaster prone areas: Based on the history of disasters in the area, and as obtained by the government data. Most vulnerable areas are the lower parts in proximity to the river.

They are mainly be from marginalised communities: scheduled caste, OBC and minorities. This classification follows the criteria used by the official Indian census. The members of these groups can be considered socially and economically deprived and they are the majority of the poorest of the poor in the state.

The selected wards were taken from low river line of the basins. The un reachable as stated by the sources; will on priroty to reach so as to support to the

unprevilaged comunity. Migration amongst villagers is on the ascending because of effect of flood on livelihood and cause

emergence of STDs and Shylock moneylenders Situation of the village on or near poor embankment area and Backwardness of the village in terms of human development indices

Monitoring and Appraisal

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Sustainability of the project

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PLANNINGINSS represents at

district level meeting.Sharing of Plan of Action

of INSS with District administration.

Convergence among District Administration, Health, ICDS and PRI.

Developing database with the help of District Administration.

MONITORINGAttending of District and

Block level officials, Unicef in the activity of INSS

Enriching us by giving valuable suggestions from the end of District and Block level officials, and Caritas

Capacitated vulnerable people and reduction of vulnerability

PLANNINGDeveloping tools and

formats.Capacity building on

various issues.Developing and fixing of

strategies.

MONITORING Sharing of experiences

among NGOs.Field visit from Unicef

and IAG

CORDINATION LEVELDISTRICT/ BLOCK

LEVELINSS LEVEL

PLANNINGIdentification of

vulnerable families Identification and

involvement of influential persons.

Joint planning at ward level by local influential persons, line departments and INSS.

Developing strategies and process of application.

Chalking out of plans for vulnerable population

Planning for using IEC materials.

Capacity building of staffs on various issues.

Innovative activities.MONITORINGWeekly review of

activities.Finding out probable

solutions for overcoming problems.

Ensuring the participation of representative of Health, ICDS and PRI in our activities.

Integrated CBDP activities with the Government sponsored Disaster Risk Management Program (DRMP)The select grass root (Animators) worker was directly from the target communities who know the basic needs of the people, their behaviors, culture and mentality. In the initial stages they sat with the target communities in a friendly atmosphere, and discussed with communities and assessed their priorities of the needs. The objectives and plan the working strategies were developed jointly. CBDP Programme tagged with the Gram Panchayats who are responsible to look after the interest of the people and have a committee who look after the flood victims. Many of the self-help groups are already engaged in different types of social activities to carry out this programme after the phase out period as they have done in the past. The linkage meetings will be carried among various stakeholders to make the project strong enough to sustain.The active SHGs will under the umbrella of Cluster and Federation organize them into a sustainable organized groups to facilitative the process of CBDRR as part of regular activities.The promotion of community based structures like Panchayati Raj Institutions, local clubs and the existing strong SHG-Cluster-Federation were helpful for sustainability, which will play a vital role in community management. These categories of people have social acceptance and possess the ability and capacity of decision making, mobilizing and influencing the people.Task Force has been strengthened as community based organization.

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