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360 degree Urban Inclusion: mumbaiVOICES |
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AIDMI> Activities> Knowledge Management> Urban Inclusion> 360 degree Urban Inclusion: mumbaiVOICES
The Initiative
On July 11, 2006, a series of seven bomb explosions in the local trains of Mumbai left 200 people dead and hundreds injured. mumbaiVOICES is a unique endeavour undertaken to study the action and impact of disaster management by government and other responders to this. It aims at capturing and communicating the voices of the survivors so that the citizens can increase their say in the protection of their city. mumbaiVOICES consists of a group of domestic and international experts of academics, research personnel, disaster planners, as well as humanitarian agencies. |
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AIDMI and Mumbai University conducted a joint pilot study in five areas with relatives of deceased, injured, bystanders, police and media in order to understand their coping mechanisms and capture the victims' voice to understand gaps in disaster mitigation and futuristic focus to cope up emergency response.
The survey found that almost all the responders were satisfied in terms of claiming dead bodies, reimbursement procedure, government role on emergency response, spontaneous delivery of services by hospital authorities, media etc. However, the majority of the emergency responders, including the government, had no accurate knowledge of first aid, the basic non-professional emergency response during any disaster. First aid facilities are not accessible and almost no railway stations are equipped with security measures to reduce terrorism risk. The need for psychosocial care and related trainings was also discovered.
The project was launched on August 10, 2006 in Mumbai and is still ongoing. It is targeted at those who were affected directly or indirectly by the bomb blasts, as it allows them to post their stories from July 11, 2006 and shed light on the strength and weakness of the city's disaster-response system. In addition, city authorities, media, police and railway authorities were targeted.
Outcomes and Activities
The www.mumbaiVOICES.com website allowed visitors to record their experiences of the disaster response on the July 11, 2006 and the ensuing days. In order to give people a centred, rigorous, in-depth, analysis of the city's response to the tragedy of July 11, 2006, this platform gives the opportunity for visitors to choose from a variety of on-line responder templates (survivors, by-standers, EMS personnel, relatives of the deceased etc.). This scheme is aimed at eliciting information that will shed light on the city's response from various lenses: emergency medical management, disaster preparedness, human rights, mental health, economic impact, media's role and livelihood regeneration.
In terms of data analysis, all responses were posted on the website. The team-members have carried out a survey among the victims of the bomb-blast that has resulted in a qualitative report following the course of the events of the fatal day. Also, a conference is intended to be organised by the partners so that the reviews conclusions can be disseminated to a broader public.
Inclusiveness
Man-made disasters have been unfortunately occurring on a more regular basis worldwide, but this does not mean that citizens, whether vulnerable or not, have acquired the proper reaction or pro-action tools. In order to reach these, mumbaiVOICES was created in a way that all the different stakeholders are included and able to give some input on their own initiative.
The fact of being a citizen-driven initiative for urban disaster response strongly enriches this project. Conceptualised by Mumbai and abroad actors, mumbaiVOICES is a unique coalition of many institutes of learning and repute that improves its expertise by gathering the contribution from all stakeholders, directly or indirectly affected.
It is this effort of taking into account people's ideas and concerns about disaster impacts and then turning them into institutionalised frameworks that make mumbaiVOICES a 360 º project.
Lessons Learned
The major constraints of the project include not only accessing the responders such as injured or relatives of deceased, but also getting information from some official authorities or the media etc.
Nevertheless, the unexpected nature of the event proved the need to increase the public capacity to respond to disasters through institutionalising preparedness tools, such as first aid skills, disaster management and planning from the school level to citizens at large.
The project has served as an experimental prototype to assess the use of Internet data for data collection and analysis in an open access environment and a resource for local agencies interested in disaster management and urban disaster response.
The mumbaiVOICES initiative is an initial step in providing a forum for citizens to share their experiences in times of crisis, in a constructive and well articulate manner.
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"The contributions of AIDMI are enormous in the field of disaster risk mitigation. The approach and strategies adopted are unique in their heavy focus on community participation in mitigation, response and rehabilitation for various disasters. Their publications provide in depth information, knowledge and facts about the various dimensions of and approaches to disaster management. Their efforts in coordinating and collaborating with government, non-government and donor agencies for the cause of community based disaster risk reduction is praise worthy."
– Dr. A.K. Singh, Regional Center for Urban & Environmental Studies, Government of India
"Addressing needs of left-out disaster-affected communities in Tamil Nadu proved vital for them to recover quicker and also to make them feel that they are part of India."
– Sanchit Oza, AIDMI |
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