The Disaster Management in India Has Become an Issue of Ridicule Essay Example for Free

The Disaster Management in India Has Become an Issue of Ridicule Essay With being the world’s second most populous country, India faces a lot of challenges in tackling the disasters that might strike her. India was expected to have learnt from the mistakes in her past. But the case isn’t so. Till date the Disaster Management of India is not as effective as it should have been for a huge country like India. All these ineffectiveness in technology has made Disaster Management in India an issue of ridicule. Earlier in the late 20th century due to lack of technology various disasters couldn’t be predicted in time, thus the people who were affected didn’t get any information about the disaster till they were struck by it. We can see the examples of floods across various states in India the cyclones in Odisha. Had been there any modern weather forecasting and prediction systems, the people would have got knowledge about the cyclones and effective plans could have been placed for minimising the effect of disaster. But even till the date the country hasn’t progressed. The lack of technology has led the country being unable to predict the heavy rains that caused the floods and landslides in Uttarakhand. Even because of lack of trust on the weathermen because of the past failures in forecasting by weathermen the state administration didn’t issue any warnings to people about the rains. Technology also consists of latest machinery and cutting edge tools which India doesn’t pose. The govt. said in it’s budget about assigning 100 thousand crores for disaster management and mitigation purpose. This amount might seem to be very large but it is very small if we consider the whole country which has about 1.6 billion citizens living in it. Even the amount used for disaster management would be quite less because of the politics and corruption. So one can easily imagine what would be the impact when a disaster strikes India. Now even NDMA has no strategies for disaster management. After the rains and the series of cloud bursts in Uttarakha nd, the Uttarakhand govt. declared that its state disaster management team didn’t have plan how to execute the rescue operation .If this is the case then there is no use of NDMA which said that it was not prepared to handle such huge disaster. Now back to technology. At the same time when India was busy in recovery of Uttarakhand, a similar disaster struck some European countries. But there the impact of disaster was quite less because of better planning efficient disaster management. The damage due to the floods cloud bursts in those countries was very less. This show  the ineffectiveness of India in tackling disasters. Now let’s shift our focus to the relief rehabilitation in India. As compared to disaster management the relief rehabilitation is better but not at par with other countries. Let us take an example. In 2011 Japan was struck with severe earthquakes, tsunamis finally a nuclear crisis, but in Japan the relief and rehabilitation work was quite instant and the country came back to normal life within a month or so. Meanwhile, In India the series of floods cloud bursts have disturbed Uttarakhand and even till today after 2 months relief work is going on. Who should be blamed for this? Only and only our govt. should be blamed. Had the govt. had been prepared for tackling this issue , today Uttarakhand wouldn’t have such devastation. Even the hand of politics cannot be neglected in Disaster Relief rehabilitation. Parties often adopt str ategies which would benefit them in next elections. They only think of their future thus this leads to failure in disaster management. Had it been japan, life would have sprung back in a single week. With cities expanding and developing in an unplanned manner, there would be a great loss in case of a disaster striking such cities. For example unsafe building practices in rapidly growing urban settlements constitute one of India’s greatest challenges for disaster management. A major earthquake in any of India’s densely and heavily populated cities in seismic zones would be catastrophic in terms of fatalities. Government of India has also launched various policies the implementation of NDMA under the Disaster Management Act of 2005. The objective of the authority has been to lay down policies and guidelines for effective management, risk mitigation and prevention of disasters in the country. However, in Uttarakhand, people were caught unawares by the series of flash floods and landslides in the absence of any mitigation measure or early warning despite the state having a history of such disasters and the weathermen predicting about it. The post disaster relief response has been equally poor—more than 70,000 people are reported missing. NDMA was constituted under the Disaster Management Act of 2005 to draft policies and guidelines on disaster management, approve and coordinate the implementation of plans for disaster preparedness and manageme nt at the Central, state and ministerial levels. The authority is headed by the prime minister. However, in the past seven years, the authority has been ineffective in carrying out most of its functions. NDMA had initiated  projects for flood mitigation and landslide mitigation at the national level in 2008. However, those projects have either been abandoned midway or are being redesigned because of poor planning. The projects to prepare national vulnerability atlases of landslides, floods and earthquake are also incomplete. Experts feel if such projects would have been implemented properly the damage in Uttarakhand could have been much less. The CAG report also highlighted several other loopholes in the functioning of NDMA. It said none of the major projects taken up by NDMA was complete even after seven years of its functioning. The projects were either abandoned midway or were being redesigned because of initial poor planning. The major projects include producing vulnerability atlases for floods, earthquakes and landslides, national landslide risk mitigation project, national flood risk mitigation project and national disaster management information system. As per the CAG report, NDMA has also not been performing several functions as prescribed in the Disaster Management Act. These include recommending provision of funds for the purpose of mitigation and recommending relief in repayment of loans or for grant of fresh loans. Besides, several critical posts in NDMA are vacant and consultants were used for day to day working. One can then easily say what would happen if India is struck by a major disaster. In layman’s language one can say that all these things have one message in common – THE DISASTER MANAGEMENT OF INDIA HAS BECOME AN ISSUE OF RIDICULE. The time has come for the citizens to take action in their hands and perform their duties . If not now it’s never and in future India’s disaster management will always remain an issue of ridicule among the people of he world because of it’s inability to tackle issues perform necessary actions.

When will child labor cease to exist? Essay -- Essays Papers

When will child labor cease to exist? Child labor is and has always been a difficult problem to address. In the global market system which exists today, the problem has become that much more difficult. Now more than ever before, markets are interdependent, and the regulation and governance of them is a convoluted process to say the least. The regulatory structure is not intact; no one knows who will regulate such issues, internationally and locally, governmentally, and in the private sector. Also, current economic practice makes it difficult to in one broad stroke ban the practice of child labor, for fear of eliminating the nation’s area of comparative advantage, cheap labor. Not only is the problem of child labor one of economics, but it is also one that raises very difficult ethical questions. This paper will attempt to weigh the economic factors both locally and internationally, against common ethical principles which are certainly to be raised when one discusses child labor. Based upon the situation some specific sectors where the practice of child labor is taking place. Depending upon the economic conditions of a country, and other external factors, some families could be faced with the prospect of starvation if their child is not earning some income to ensure the survival of the family. One question that is raised early in the analysis of child labor is, is child labor categorically wrong? The practice of child labor was a long standing institution in many western European countries, and had a general glint of acceptance. It was only in the nineteenth century that we find the rise of the contemporary ideal of childhood emerge, and the wave of anti child labor sentiment reach a stage where it faded away ... ... practice of harmful child labor obsolete. The institution of education is the most important aspect to building economies to a point where they may rise out of the child labor trap. Education must be gradually intra nationally and internationally be subsidized, while simultaneously providing some form of economic aid or reform to these countries that make it possible for the families in these poor countries in Asia and Africa to keep their child out of dangerous labor, and in school. What is in essence proposed, is a gradual effort of the international community. Bibliography http://econ.cudenver.edu/beckman/econ4410/basu.pdf http://www.unicef.org/protection/index_childlabour.html http://www.nclnet.org/clc.htm http://www.hrw.org/children/labor.htm http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/children.html#Child%20Labor http://www.empereur.com/DOC/Child_Labor.html

The Causes and Solutions to Ethnic Conflicts

Scholars of International Security have been trying to develop a theoretical approach to explain the causes of ethnic conflict for a long time. These studies have led to contentious debates but have also probed so deeply that their findings help shed new light on these issues, providing better understanding and possible solutions. Ethnic groups are defined as a community of people who share cultural and linguistic characteristics including religion, language, history, tradition, myth, and origin. This paper will explore the realist explanations of ethnic conflicts and then see how critical theory explanations offer new insight and answers to puzzles that could not be previously be explained. It will then explore several of the possible solutions used to end incidents of ethnic violence. Finally, it will focus on the debate surrounding partition as a possible solution to ethnic conflict, concluding that it is in fact a viable option for peace when implemented judiciously. According to realist explanations, ethnic conflicts are deeply rooted in cognitive and situational needs. In his article, â€Å"The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict,† realist scholar Barry Posen claims that anarchy creates competition and hostility between ethnic, religious and cultural groups. Ethnic fractions act to preserve their identity and physical security through the accumulation of resources and military power. Interestingly, Posen notes that social cohesion is viewed as a larger threat than material assets in military competition. Social cohesion, he claims, derives from historical accounts of identity building which often are inaccurate and biased; thus perpetuating cultural differences and hatred of the other. [1] Accordingly, ethnic tensions are inevitable but can quickly magnify to warfare when one group coerces or dominates the other militarily or ideologically. Realists, such as Posen do not ignore the fact that â€Å"ideas† are essential elements of ethnic conflict, but rather use them support the needs of power and mutual deterrence. In his article, â€Å"Symbolic Politics or Rational Choice? ,† Stewart Kaufman attempts to deconstruct realist explanations of ethnic conflicts by introducing his own theory called â€Å"symbolic politics. † According to this theory, episodes of extreme ethnic violence are caused by, â€Å"[ G]roup myths that justify hostility, fears of group extinction and a symbolic politics of chauvinist mobilization. † [2] Kaufman believes that these myths produce â€Å"emotion-laden symbols that make mass hostility easy for chauvinist elites to provoke and make extremist policies popular. [3] Both Posen and Kaufman use the situation in former Yugoslavia to validate their respective theories. According to Posen’s realist explanation, the origin of the conflict was a primordial contentious relationship between the Croats and Serbs. Due to the past violence and aggression inflicted upon them by the Croats, the Serbs were justifiably fearful for their security. Their ability to mobilize and slight military advantage prompted mutual fear and competition from the Croats, which in turn resulted in the Serbs launching what they perceived to be a preventative war. 4] Kaufman’s symbolic politics theory suggests that the conflict was not one based on group interests or material factors, but rather, â€Å"the struggle for relative group worth†[5] and that charismatic leaders such as Milosevic and Tudjman exploited pre-existing myths and symbols which appealed to the emotions of the public, in order promote their own, expansionist agendas. [6] Upon in depth analysis of both scholars’ explanations, I found each to be very similar and plausible. In my opinion, Kaufman’s â€Å"symbolic politics† theory does not undermine Posen’s realist explanation of the conflict, but rather supports and expands on it. Kaufman’s explanation appears to be more of a critical analysis which combines elements of realist explanations (power), liberal explanations (elite manipulation of ethnic differences by leaders) and constructivist explanations (ethnic identities are constructed by historical â€Å"myths. †) In the same article, Kaufman examines the ethnic conflicts of Sudan and Rwanda as case studies to further support his symbolic politics theory. The most dominant explanation for ethnic conflict in these areas had been the realist account, which claimed that European colonialism created strife by reconstructing African identities and exploiting their resources; forcing them the compete with each other for survival. While I do believe that these realist explanations are legitimate factors, I do not think they are the only ones. After reading Stuart Kaufman’s in depth explanations, I am now convinced that value systems—or lack thereof, lie at the root of ethnic conflict. In Northern Sudan, Islamic values encouraged hostile expansionism of Sharia law, which threatened the survival (identity) of the Southern Sudanese who were unwilling to submit to it. Similarly, the creation of hostile myths against the Tutsi minority and large scale acceptance of the use of violence against them in Rwanda shows how easily populations lacking strong value systems can be manipulated by political elites into justifying the most heinous acts of violence against other human beings. Just as there are many plausible theories that explain the causes of ethnic conflicts worldwide, there too are many possible solutions. Although he is a realist scholar, Barry Posen admits that peacekeeping can sometimes be achieved through diplomatic measures, mainly by encouraging groups involved in the conflict to reexamine their past history from a more objective standpoint. Other third party options include: the creation of international institutions aimed at rebuilding domestic institutions, international treaties such as the non-proliferation policy, the use of economic sanctions, and the use of peacekeeping forces. All of these solutions have had success in some areas and failures elsewhere. When international diplomatic peacekeeping efforts fail and the ethnic conflict persists, outside powers are sometimes forced to implement material methods of assistance including military support and weaponry. Because warfare is always a last resort, the use of partitions has become a highly effective but equally controversial method used to suppress ethnic violence. According to some realist scholars, the separation of ethnic identities serves a necessary purpose; it provides people with meaningful associations and security. Chaim Kaufmann, though a prominent proponent of the use of partitions in pervasive interethnic conflict, still acknowledges that they should be used as a last resort and that the risks of partition and population transfers are only worth undertaking if they are saving the lives that would have been sacrificed if they had not occurred. [7] Critics of the use of partitions such as Radha Kumar argue that they do little to mitigate violence, but instead escalate tensions and cause mass movements of forced migration. 8] In his article, â€Å"When All Else Fails: Ethnic Population Transfers and Partitions in the Twentieth Century,† Chaim Kaufmann does a good job at deconstructing this myth. He claims that persistent violence creates refugee movements because people are afraid to stay where they are, or are at times forced to leave by opposing militant forces. Therefore, intermixed populations will inevitably become separated and the use of partitions only serves as an organizational vehicle which would enable them to resettle in a structured and protected manner. 9] Kumar’s arguments are further refuted by Kaufmann’s use of empirical data which prove that incidents of violence actually diminished when partitions were constructed in Ireland, India and Cyprus and that marginal increases of violence in those regions were not a result of the partition, but rather the lack of complete separation between rival groups within those regions. Kaufmann concedes that the case with Israel and Palestine is a special circumstance due to the fact that Palestinian threats are so pervasive that Israel’s existence is dependent on the partition. In contrast, Kumar’s strongest argument is that partition has rarely been anything more than a temporary solution to conflict, but its psychological effects are permanent. [10] After considering both sides of the argument, I believe the benefits of using partitions far out way the costs. While the psychological barriers that partitions create are an unfortunate reality, the numbers of lives they save are more important. In closing it is important to understand that each case of ethnic conflict studied has individual characteristics which make it unique and thus the causes and solutions to each situation are unique as well. Despite their variance, there is still something that can be learned and applied by studying each case. The realist explanation asserts that power and security factors are the motivating cause for conflict, but new critical theory explanations help us to see that physical and psychological security alone are not enough to deter episodes of ethnic violence. While it has been proven that material factors such as military and nuclear capability and partitions are effective deterrents, they should only be used as last result methods. International institutions, treaties and post conflict reconstruction initiatives are all instrumental in the peacekeeping effort. But in my opinion, the most effective method used for reducing incidences of ethnic violence is that of nation building. I’ve arrived at this conclusion, not only through scholarly analysis but also through personal experience. As a fourth generation Jewish American who grew up in the â€Å"melting pot† of New York City, I have been fortunate to witness the success of democratic values first hand. While I understand that constructing civic identities based on universal values of â€Å"liberty and justice for all† may seem like an overly idealistic notion, I need only to look at the success of my country and my city to know that it can be done.

Evolution of E-Governance in India - 4111 Words

THE ROLE OF ONE STOP GOVERNMENT PORTAL IN E-GOVERNANCE OF INDIA Abstract This paper on One Stop Government Portal starts with the need for deviation from conventional method of offering govt. services physically to offering it virtually. It talks about the consequences of introduction of e-governance with reference to one-stop govt. portals in India and the way people perceived its services. It also mentions the way in which these services can be enhanced in order to reach the maximum people effectively. Further, the one stop government portals can be used as a platform to develop Unique Id system for the citizens of India. Thus, the paper throws light on an era of internet that attempted to change the government services in a country†¦show more content†¦The main objective was to avoid the rework performed by Indian citizen to stand in queues just for getting an application form. This was a vexing situation for both the govt. officials and citizens of India. The work would be easier and life would be better if this application form was made avai lable on internet. This provided a start-up idea for the concept of govt. portals in the country. Although, other objectives were also defined but the 2. The real usage: These services were meant to ease the pressure off the citizens of India. However, there was a difference in a way majority of people perceived these services. For many, it was just a new technology which they felt was far beyond their reach. For some, the security feature was hindering in the process of taking initiative to use the e-governance services. There were also issues regarding literacy, although the portals were meant to be multi-lingual, the initial services were launched in English which was a major factor for not reaching many citizens in India. Hence all these factors led to decline in the numbers expected to use the e-governance services in India. 3. THE BACKBONE: THE ONE STOP PORTAL INITIATIVES IN INDIA 1. 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