India’s Northeast: Disasters, Development and Community Resilience

Abstract

There are many reasons why development has unreservedly lagged behind in the north-eastern India, but an increasing frequency of disasters especially in the poorest regions of these states substantiates the fact that disasters are somewhat linked to failed development. It takes years to develop, but it may not even take a few minutes to wash off this hard earned development due to disasters. The present work found this region as extremely neglected which has been trailing behind the rest of ‘rising or shining India’ (‘Rising or Shining India’ is a metaphor used to describe the country’s sentiment by different political incumbents to power since 2000. It reflects a heightened awakening towards economic reforms, expanding global business and holistic development. The metaphor characterizes those many refreshingly new young entrepreneurs who are driven with a nationalistic desire to excell in a competitive world market. Due to lack of basic services, the region has also not been able to bring down poverty, homelessness, unemployment and outmigration of its rich human resource. Disasters neutralize the gains of development, but by mitigating them through risk reduction and community resilience building, the government can reduce its impact on people. The governments did not develop a mitigation plan, enforce the disaster Management Act (DMA) 2005 and bring the much required institutional strengthening to achieve community resilience and risk reduction. This paper suggests a much needed transdisciplinary approach to bridge an ever-deepening gap between scientific research and institutional decision-making. The paper also sets in motion the concerns taken up by various contributors to this volume on organizational entropy and gradual dystrophy of hill communities due to environmental changes in their habitats.

Professor of Law and Governance at JNU and PI of Disaster Research Programme (now a Special Centre for Disaster Research at JNU).