Given that 85 percent of India’s landmass is prone to one disaster or the other, a recent national study (supported by UNICEF), by colleagues at the JTSDS revealed that most national flagship programmes are ‘disaster blind’. Carrying the analysis forward, how can schemes and programmes be made risk -aware? The present study proposes to address this question.
Disasters typically reveal the underbelly of a society and its governance systems. In the context of the current pandemic, the central and state ministries in India have rightly issued innumerable notifications, and orders in diverse sectors to ensure that lives are protected and the impacts of the spread of the virus is minimised.
A systematic study of these orders would provide a window to identify gaps in the current sectoral and social protection policies and programmes which are known to completely ignore the reality of multiple disasters that people confront annually.
Faculty Team: Prof. Janki Andharia, Dr. M. Irshad, Ms. Lavanya Arvind, Ms. Niti Mishra, students and alumni. Contact: jankiandharia@gmail.com
The visuals of lengthy lines of hungry and tired migrant workers embarking on a long march home have been one of the most enduring images of current times. While there are a number of key concerns that remain to be addressed at the policy and intervention levels, a critical gap identified is also the dearth of an authentic database in order to match immediate needs of the migrants with the relief measures of the government and civil society organizations so as to put in place more coordinated and focused short-term and long-term interventions.
A mapping exercise in collaboration with the Rachakonda Police Commissionerate. A brief 35-item schedule was developed as a Google form and that could be accessed on a smartphone by the data collector. The exercise began on 15th April and as on date (22nd April), 3866 individuals have been interviewed, covering a population of around 5000 spread across three police station limits.
Faculty Team: Dr. M.Murali Krishna (murali.krishna@tiss.edu), Bibhuprasad Nayak, Mohan Dharavath, S. Srinivas, Poulomi Bhattacharya, Sunayana Swain, and U.Vindhya
Citizen grievance redressal is a priority for responsive and responsible governance. Both the state and central government have set up grievance redressal mechanisms as an integrated component of administration to achieve transparency, accountability and responsiveness to citizen concerns. During disaster this mechanism addresses beneficiary grievance and the Maharashtra state DM plan mandates establishing grievance redressal mechanisms to address issues and resolve disputes in disasters. The Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) functions to facilitate state and district coordination for emergency response. During emergencies, such as the current COVID 19 crisis, we get to understand that the EOC has also been designated as the Grievance Redressal Cell. Citizen concerns in disasters comprise wide ranging objective issues related to death, loss of property and restorations of services or medical assistance, and subjective issues related to stress and anxiety that result from disaster and emerging uncertainties. EOC services have to be topped up with support services (both objective and subjective) and integrate various government and civil society initiatives to match the basic requirements of a Grievance Redressal Cell and help citizens cope with emerging concerns in a coordinated manner. However to enable such integrated and coordinated effort, the capacity of district EOC will have to be enhanced, which is the focus of the proposal being developed in partnership with the Govt of Maharashtra.
Faculty Team : Prof. Jacquleen Joseph and Ms. Niti Mishra
This is an action research study to understand the barriers and enablers for uptake and adherence to public health education (PHE) measures for infection control, including respiratory etiquette, sanitary hygiene, physical distancing and hand washing. The study will focus on homeless populations in Mumbai and IDP in the North East, and attempt to understand their situation in the larger context of current policies, community, institutions, interpersonal relationships and individual behavior that moderate their hygiene practices. The intervention that we are specifically focusing on is the PHE measures used by different stakeholders – government, media, humanitarian actors and the public response to the same through social media content and primary data collection and analysis.
Faculty Team: Prof. Jacquleen Joseph, Dr. Peehu Pardeshi, Dr. Ramesh Veerappan, OXFAM, and faculty from University of Copenhagen and University of Dhaka Contact: jacquleenjoseph@tiss.edu
This study aims at demonstrating Integrated Mental Health and Psycho-social Support (MH&PSS) Services towards Enhancing Individual and Collective Well-being. The pilot project will explore the role of effective functioning of Grievance Redressal Cell, mandated as per Maharashtra State Disaster Management Plan, for responsive and responsible governance during emergencies such as COVID-19. The project will focus on demonstrating the integration of the grievance redressal mechanism of any one district with pragmatic and emotional support (Mental Health & Psycho-Social Support) services to strengthen the capacity of the state to address objective and subjective needs of its citizens during crisis. Present demonstration of the innovation of integration of pragmatic and emotional support services with that of the Emergency Operation Centre (EOC), could enable the other districts across India to emulate and contribute to National Disaster Management Architecture.
Faculty Team: Prof. Jacquleen Joseph with TISS psycho-social group, D&B Project Team OXFAM, Govt of Maharashtra, NIMHANS, Bangalore. Contact: jacquleenjoseph@tiss.edu
This study will examine the Gendered Aftermath of the Corona Virus Epidemic in the 2001 Earthquake Temporary Resettlement neighbourhood in Gujarat. The mainstream paradigm of recovery has created disaster vulnerable urban neighbourhoods, and further accelerated cascading disaster risks among the urban poor – structures of violence, against which the effects of the COVID-19 epidemic, or the measures to counter it should be analysed. Using ethnographic life-historical, audio-visual storytelling and policy analysis methods, COVID-19 Lockdown focuses specifically on the gendered aftermath of the lockdown in March-April & May 2020.
Faculty Team: Prof. Jacquleen Joseph with faculty of University of Finland. Contact: jacquleenjoseph@tiss.edu
The lack of preparedness to the Covid 19 pandemic and unprecedented measures to contain it has led to an enormous impact on “normal life”. There is a disproportionate loss in minority communities and different sectors in India might be affected in varying degrees. The study aims to track psychological distress longitudinally in different sectors, to identify early warning signs, to inform interventions and policy decisions in dealing with the pandemic.
Social media handles have been created for the project, to recruit participants. On social media, we have renamed the project as “Unpacking the CoVid 19 effect: A Research Project on the Psychological Impact and Human Adaptation to the Pandemic”. A flyer of the same is attached.
Faculty: Dr. Sukanya Ray, Assistant Professor, School of Human Ecology. Contact: sukanya.ray@tiss.edu
The lack of preparedness to the Covid 19 pandemic and unprecedented measures to contain it has led to an enormous impact on “normal life”. There is a disproportionate loss in minority communities and different sectors in India might be affected in varying degrees. The study aims to track psychological distress longitudinally in different sectors, to identify early warning signs, to inform interventions and policy decisions in dealing with the pandemic.
Social media handles have been created for the project, to recruit participants. On social media, we have renamed the project as “Unpacking the CoVid 19 effect: A Research Project on the Psychological Impact and Human Adaptation to the Pandemic”. A flyer of the same is attached.
Faculty: Dr. Sukanya Ray, Assistant Professor, School of Human Ecology. Contact: sukanya.ray@tiss.edu
To get in touch with us, please send an email to - corona-response@tiss.edu
Editorial Team: Amita Bhide, Anjali Monteiro, Janki Andharia
Editorial Support and Newsletter: Anusha Ramanathan
Content Editor: Aparna Srivastava
Content coordinators/contributors: Vijay Raghavan, Aparna Joshi, Nilesh Gawde, Aseem Prakash, Rajni Konanthambigi, Faiz Ullah, Asha Banu Soletti, Ratoola Kundu, Lalitha Kamath, Chetna Duggal, Jacquleen Joseph, Lavanya Arvind, Sabah Khan, Trupti Panchal, staff of M-Ward project, Prayas, Tanda, Koshish, Special cell, and all other interventions/Field Action Projects of TISS
Wireframe and Design Inputs: K.P. Jayasankar`
IT Support: Sivakumar V and staff of TISS Computer Centre
Web Development: Dot Solutions
