The Shiny Bridge to Nowhere

Santa and Banta were on a bus, winding its way through a valley that had been ravaged during the 2013 Kedarnath floods. Santa pressed his face against the window, his expression one of awe.

“Look, Banta!”

“Just look at the work!”

“A huge new bridge here, a massive retaining wall there!”

“So much concrete!”

“After the 2013 tragedy, the government has really woken up.”

“Now we are safe!”

Banta looked at the same massive structures but saw something entirely different. He sighed, a sound heavy with disillusionment.

“It is impressive engineering, Santa.”

“But tell me, is a strong bridge of any use if the village upstream has no early warning system to tell them a flood is coming?”

Santa looked confused.

“What do you mean?”

“A strong bridge is a strong bridge.”

“This,” Banta said, gesturing at the concrete wall, “is what I call the great Technocratic Capture.”

“After 2013, a flood of big money came in from the World Bank, ADB and other agencies.”

“And with it came a shift in philosophy.”

“We stopped focusing on making our people resilient and started focusing on building big, shiny things.”

“We prioritized hardware over software.”

“Hardware? Software?”

“Are you talking about computers?”

“No,” Banta clarified.

“In disaster management, software is the cheap but priceless work: training a mason, teaching a child CPR, creating a village disaster plan, spreading awareness through a song.”

“It’s building capacity in people.”

“Hardware is this expensive concrete and steel.”

“It’s building things.”

He leaned in, his voice dropping.

“This one bridge probably cost crores.”

“For that same money, we could have trained 50,000 volunteers across the state.”

“We could have given a first-aid kit and a satellite phone to every single Gram Pradhan.”

“But that doesn’t create big contracts.”

“It doesn’t look as impressive on TV.”

“After 2013, the narrative became about reconstruction, not resilience.”

“Our own local experts who understood the software were sidelined by international consultants who only understood the hardware.”

“So yes, we have a shiny new bridge.”

“But I fear it’s a bridge leading to a village that is just as vulnerable as it was before.”

संता – बंता की इस जुगलबन्दी से आज हमने क्या सीखा:-  

• सीख / Discover: 2013 की आपदा के बाद से उत्तराखण्ड में आपदा जोखिम न्यूनीकरण से जुड़े कार्य समुदाय के सशक्तीकरण व क्षमता विकास के स्थान पर अवस्थापना विकास से जुड़ी बड़ी परियोजनाओं पर केंद्रित हो गये हैं / After the 2013 tragedy, the focus of DRR in Uttarakhand shifted from community capacity building (“software”) to large-scale infrastructure projects (“hardware”).
• विज्ञान / Science: असली प्रतिरोध्यता के लिये समुदाय आधारित क्षमता विकास व जागरूकता कार्यक्रमों तथा तकनीकी अवस्थापना विकास से जुडी परियोजनाओं के मध्य सामंजस्य का होना जरूरी हैं। समुदाय को सच्ची सुरक्षा सुदृढ़ चेतावनी व्यवस्था व प्रशिक्षित प्रतिवादन दल की उपस्थिति से मिलती हैं न कि  एक मजबूत पुल के होने से / True resilience is a balance of both hardware and software. A community with a robust early warning system and trained first responders (“software”) is often safer than one with just a strong bridge (“hardware”).
• आत्ममंथन / Reflect: धीमी व किसी की नजर में न आने वाले समुदाय आधारित क्रियाकलापों की अपेक्षा,  बड़ी व आसानी से दिखाई देने वाली परियोजनायें निश्चित ही राजनैतिक व आर्थिक रूप से लाभकारी हो सकती हैं, परन्तु इससे समुदाय की अपेक्षा चंद तकनीकी व्यक्तियों को आपदा जोखिम न्यूनीकरण सम्बन्धित कार्यो का माई-बाप बनने का मौका मिल जाता हैं / Large-scale, high-visibility infrastructure projects are often politically and financially more rewarding than the slow, thankless work of community empowerment, leading to a “technocratic capture” of the DRR agenda.
• उत्तरदायित्व / Responsibility: हमें समुदाय को सुरक्षित व सशक्त बनाने वाले क्षमता विकास व जागरूकता जैसे कम खर्चीले या मितव्ययी उपायों की अपेक्षा तकनीक व अवस्थापना विकास कार्यो पर  किये जाने वाले  बेहताशा खर्च पर सवाल उठाते हुवे, संतुलित दृष्टिकोण अपनाये जाने की मांग करनी चाहिये / We must demand a balanced approach, questioning whether massive expenditure on “hardware” is coming at the cost of life-saving “software” like training, awareness, and local capacity building.

 संता – बंता की यह जुगलबन्दी आपको कैसी लगी, कृपया हमें जरुर बताये 

व 

इस जुगलबन्दी को बेहतर बनाने के लिये अपने सुझाव अवश्य दें।

हमें हमेशा की तरह आपके सुझावों, प्रतिक्रियाओं व कटाक्षो का बेसब्री से इंतजार रहता हैं और सच मानिये इसी के आधार पर हम अपने आप में, अपनी सोच व रचनात्मकता में सुधार करने को प्रेरित होते हैं। 

सो अच्छा – बुरा जैसा आपको महसूस हुवा हो, कमेंट जरुर करते रहें।