Mumbai: With an increasing number of people affected by various types of disasters across the globe, it is high time that humanitarian assistance is taken seriously and be made people-centric, disaster management experts said.

Relief work is not about distributing couple of biscuits and a few old clothes. Putting poor people, especially women and children at the centre of any relief operation is crucial, Quality Assurance of Human Emergencies Affairs Group, Geneva Director Ton Van Zutphen said here.

The NGOs who come forward for relief work should take affected people into confidence and find out what are their immediate requirements and then accept relief material, accordingly. They should also share information with other NGOs working in the disaster locality, he said.

Often military and aid agencies ignore such vulnerable people, Zutphen said, adding, "it is high time we take humanitarian assistance more seriously and make it accountable," while delivering a lecture on Towards improved disaster management by humanitarian actors, at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

Zutphen said it was important to have a set of minimum and common standards in the disaster management and know the requirements of the affected people. "We need to shift gears and treat humanitarian assistance as a fundamental right and not as an act of charity, NGO ActionAid International country advisor Geneva-based Sphere board member Dr P V Unnikrishnan said. 

"Specific needs of women, for example, cannot be addressed by dumping generic relief material in any disaster. But the best way to find their needs is by engaging them directly in relief operations," Unnikrishnan said.

A study carried out by Danish government on the type of disaster managements showed there was no coordination among the NGOs and the affected people were never taken into confidence on their genuine needs and therefore, there were duplications or no help reaching the people affected in
disasters, both natural and man-made, the experts said.

Widows, single mothers are vulnerable among the affected and women have also demonstrated on various occasions their capacity to respond to crisis situation, they said, adding that it is the responsibility of Aid agencies to recognise and engage them in relief activities.

Although in the case of tsunami disaster three years back there was some realisation of the supporting agencies and the UN to work together in coordination, there is still need for evolving more balance when the humanitarian aspect of the disaster management is carried out, Zutphen said.

"The Government of India should recognise the dignity of disaster-affected people and develop standards. Using Sphere as a role model, it may be the first step as these are global standards developed, especially keeping poor and vulnerable communities in context," Unnikrishnan said.

Zutphen said the soul searching of NGOs in the aftermath of Rwandan genocide (with over 60,000 refugees) resulted in the handbook of standards for disaster management by Sphere.

Nearly half a million of refugees who fled to Congo died during the following days due to lack of survival needs, sanitation and diarrhoea, he said.

Source : PTI