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Natural disaster, but avoidable tragedy
BARUN MITRA THE ECONOMIC TIMES, November 23, 1999 The enormity of the tragedy that scarred Orissa in the aftermath of the super cyclone is yet to be assessed. But a question arises: Is nature biased against poorer people and developing countries? Even a cursory analysis of the scale of natural disasters, whether floods, earthquakes or hurricanes, would show that economically developed countries have a much greater resilience to withstand calamities and suffer far lower loss of life. In Orissa the human tragedy was clearly the handiwork of man. Orissa is a state rich in natural resources. Its people, among the poorest, can not be accused of over-consumption and greed. Policies of the state at the Central and state levels have ensured that much of these resources are utilised or underutilised. In India, this lack of development has been the result of 50 years of state control over the economy. As a result, there are no resources left to deal with calamities like the recent cyclone. Even 10 days after the cyclone, no clear information had emerged about the scale of destruction. The communication system, which has almost been a handmaiden of the state in India, as is now clear, was totally inadequate. Instead of a wide range of technology, from local broadcasting stations, wireless, telephone and satellites, continuously informing the people of the impending disaster and advising them of precautions to be taken, the information barely flowed. Even coastal fishermen were not adequately informed and many ventured out to sea to face the brunt of the storm, many never to return. Indeed, we seem to have learnt nothing from other similar calamities which frequently hit this country. It is not enough to lay the blame at the door of the bureaucracy for its callousness and indifference. It is not enough to blame the politicians, who now swarm the disaster area like vultures in the grab of Santa Claus, with the sole objective of scoring political points. The fact is that a private and widespread network of communication channels would have ensured not only better flow of information before the storm, but also greatly increased the chances of some of these channels surviving the storm to readily assess the damage and direct relief measures immediately. In many parts of the world, weather forecasting is an attractive business proposition. Linked with the insurance sector, this is the most efficient tool for dissemination of such information to rural communities and fisherfolk. In a competitive marketplace, there would be a premium on quality of such information. None of these exists today. It is no coincidence that we make a huge fuss about allowing 26 per cent foreign equity in insurance, while barely 5 per cent of the population is under any kind of cover, and equate the interests of the 250,000 public sector insurance employees to that of the 1 billion population. In IT and telecom, we do every thing to stifle new technological advances like cable TV, DTH broadcasting, cellular and satellite telephony, etc, that may help improve the condition of our own people by providing them access to information. With just 15 million telephones and 50 million televisions, and less than a million personal computers, the country is ill equipped to enter the information age under the aegis of the state. We must get the state out of the peoples hair, and let the enterprising spirits of the people have free reign, allow them to harness the potential of the marketplace in areas such as information, insurance, relief and rebuilding, and all the other economic areas. The tragedy of Orissa is the latest manifestation of the ills affecting our institutions. We need rapid and massive reforms, political, economic, judicial and administrative, to have any chance of cutting the proverbial Gordian knot that has been choking us to death. (The author is with the Liberty Institute, an independent think tank based in New Delhi) Courtesy: The Economic Times Courtesy: The Asian Wall Street Journal |
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