Disaster and Livelihood of the Affected Population: Case Study of June 2013 Disaster in Rudraprayag District of Uttarakhand

Abstract

Impact of disaster on the disaster affected population and utilisation pattern of the relief is assessed though a semi-structured questionnaire and focused discussions in Rudraprayag district of Uttarakhand in India that was affected by devastated floods in June, 2013. The families dependent on farm animals, agricultural land and business were covered under the study. This research is based on fieldwork carried out in the disaster affected Rudraprayag district and investigated an aspect that has not been studied in detail. It is found that the most persons engaged in small operations and particularly those coming from low socio-economic strata of the community fail to avail support from organised financial institutions and are therefore unable to replenish the productive assets lost in disaster and most money received in relief is spent on subsistence. This has resulted in reduced earning and deteriorated quality of life of the local inhabitants. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the fact that in the absence of popularity of risk transfer tools, productive assets lost in disaster are often not replenished as the relief amount provided by the state is significantly less than the market value of lost assets. In case of loss of productive assets, the state should therefore initiate an organised scheme with the involvement of financial institutions to ensure replenishment of productive assets of the disaster affected population rather than providing cash relief and insurance of the assets created be made mandatory as the voluntary adoption of risk transfer tools is unlikely to come by soon.

Keywords

• Economic recovery
• Productive assets
• Disaster
• Relief
• Mandakini valley
• Uttarakhand Himalaya
• Uttarakhand Himalaya

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