Draft for Discussion Bihar Floods 2017 Immediate Needs Assessment and Inclusion Monitoring of Responses towards affected Dalits, Minorities & Adivasis in Araria and Kishanganj ( 31st August - 12th September) Prepared by - National Dalit watch-National Campaign on Dalit human Rights, All India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch & Jan Jagran Shakti Sangathan 1 Content Introduction 1- Floods 2017 2- Response by government 3- Why Immediate Needs assessment and Inclusion Monitoring ? 4- Methodology and tools 5- Coverage and Duration of the assessment 6- Locating Dalits, Minorities in flood affected districts of Bihar 7- Findings from Immediate needs assessment & Inclusion monitoring of post Bihar Flood response a- Trends of Losses b- Early Warning, Rescue and Evacuation c- Immediate relief Immediate Shelter - Provision of Relief Camps - Provision of Community Kitchen - Provision of Dry Ration and Food Packets - Provision of drinking water, sanitation and hygiene facilities - Provision of immediate health support services - Process of relief distribution - Assessment of Losses and Post flood response from government authorities - 8-Urgent demands from affected communities Immediate food assistance Shelters Health Restoration of Public services Early recovery & immediate compensation 9-Recommendation for dignified recovery and Rehabilitation Implementation level Practice level Policy level Annexure List of Relief Camps & Team Involved 2 INTRODUCTION In the mid of august when Nation was planning to celebrate its 70th independence Day and waiting for joy and happiness. State of Bihar has faced severe flood due to deep depression over Bay of Bengal with the heavy rain brought the sadness to. The heavy rains from 10-14th august and flood waters have stranded the life for almost 15 days. The disaster affected population of 27.60 lakh in 314 panchayats of Araria and Kishanganj in which 120 people have lost their lives. The flood which severely, rendered lakhs of hungry and homeless, flattened thousands of mud houses and kuccha houses , orphaned and dislocated many more the after days life is hard for a majority of the affected population.Death, disease, hunger, deprivation, dispossession, distress migration and constant poverty are now stalking them relentlessly. Though various reports have already talked about the situation of the 2017 flood in Bihar , this survey report comes out with issues around equitable access of rescue and relief provisions to Dalit, Minorities and Adivasi communities in the immediate flood relief operations by govt agencies in affected villages of Araria and Kishanganj. The immediate needs assessment and inclusion monitoring of 63 villages of 24 panchayats in 7 blocks in Kishanganj and Araria divulge that even in this severe situation once again the state and its allied agencies have failed to provide dignified response to Dalits, Minorities and Adivasis. Cases of Corruption in damage assessment, relief distribution, delay in relief, discrimination in relief camps by dominant caste people , by default neglect towards huge population of Muslims and Dalits in giving them relief and rescue. This report once again shows us similar traits of discrimination happened in 2007, 2008 , 2010,2014 &2016 . This shows that government machinery even with its best intention of providing relief and rescue to everyone have failed to provide relief to downtrodden communities. Cases of neglect of food by helicopter team , no response from DM and BDO Kishanganj over the phone to villagers of Kishanganj, Giving Rs 1500 to a women as compensation for death of her husband by Mukhiya , Leaving Disabled people, pregnant women etc stranded in flood waters for 5-6 days and many more such evidences give a gruesome picture of Bihar Disaster Management and its vision of Leaving on one Behind. The state disaster management is still in reactionary response the condition of Dalits , Minorities and Adivasi population which are more dependent on state agencies are still waiting for their dignified share this response report also reveals how Dalits, Minorities and Adivasis have been treated during the floods and process of Rescue, Relief and Post Disaster Care We hope that this report will be helpful for communities and stakeholders to recognize the discrimination and neglect towards Dalits ,Minorities and Adivasis in Disaster response and work towards Inclusive disaster risk reduction practices in Bihar and Make Inclusive Disaster Risk Reduction an agenda and core action of its DM& DRR actions through inclusive targeting , programming and actions . 3 1- FLOODS 2017 In 2017 the state of Bihar have faced one of the worst floods in its history affected affected 19 districts of North Bihar causing death of 514 people. 2,371 panchayats (settlement councils) under 187 blocks of 19 districts (Kishanganj , araria , Purnea , katihar , west champaran , east champaran , darbhanga , madhubani , sithamarhi , Shivhar , Supaul , madhepura , muzaffarpur , gopalganj , saharsa , khagaria , saran , samastipur ) of Northern Bihar have been affected in the flood. Around 1.71 crore (17.1 million) people are hit by the floods. Over 8.5 lakh people have lost their homes, with Araria district alone accounting for 2.2 lakh homeless people 2017 Flood has broken 9-Year record of deaths In Bihar. Bihar is India's most flood-prone State, with 76% of the population in the North Bihar living under the recurring threat of flood devastation. Devastating flood was caused due to excess heavy rainfall in monsoon season1. Sl No District Blocks Panchayats Population Deaths in Lakh 1. Kishanganj 7 126 10.10 24 2. Araria 9 188 17.50 95 3. Purnea 13 148 12.31 44 4. Katihar 15 189 20.08 40 5. East Champaran 22 261 24.08 32 6. West Champaran 16 211 7.19 42 7. Darbhanga 14 231 21.21 37 8. Madhubani 15 201 7.65 28 9. Sitamarhi 10 243 22.74 47 10. Shivhar 5 41 1.62 6 11 Supaul 8 77 3.98 16 12 Madhepura 10 89 3.38 29 13 Muzaffarpur 12 140 8.69 21 14 Gopalganj 6 47 3.44 20 15 Saharsa 7 72 3.37 8 16 Khagaria 6 35 1.62 10 17 Saran 6 36 1.68 13 19 Samastipur 5 32 0.50 2 19 Sivan 1 4 0.50 0 187 2371 171.64 514 As on 18/09/20172 1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Bihar_flood 2 http://disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/press%20notes/PR18092017Evening.pdf ) 4 2- RESPONSE BY GOVERNMENT Total number of 52 teams i.e 28 team of NDRF, 16 SDRF along with 7 team of army consisting of 2248 personnel deployed for rescue and evacuation of Flood affected population Total Number of 280 boats have been provided by the authority to evacuate flood affected population Number of People evacuated 8549363 Number of people in served in relief camps 421824 Total Number of 462174 people being served food in 2569 community kitchens Air dropping of 160840 kg of ration through 31908 Dry food packets in disconnected areas due to floods Announcement of damage assessment and compensation as per SDRF/NDRF norms4 On 26 August 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Rs 500 crore (78 million USD) central assistance for flood hit areas of Bihar and ex gratia of Rs 2 Lakh to the next of kin of each of the deceased from the PM Relief Fund, after he conducted an aerial survey of the four districts of Purnia division, including Araria district. The Centre would finally sanction more funds for flood relief measures based on the report submitted by the central team. Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Jharkhand donated Rs 5 crore each to Bihar flood relief fund. On 29 August 2017, Bihar cabinet sanctioned Rs 1,935 crore under Bihar Contingency Fund for relief and restoration work in the flood-hit districts in the state. Payment of relief amount to the flood-affected families and differently- abled persons- Rs 900 crore Supply of food material - Rs 947 crore Ex- gratia payment to the next of kin of the deceased - Rs 8 crore Rehabilitation - Rs 50 crore Repair of houses damaged in the floods - Rs 10 crore Agriculture input loans - Rs 20 crore Bihar cabinet sanctioned the amount when the toll was 400. Rs 6,000 will be given as gratuitous relief to every flood-affected person. The money would be deposited in the beneficiaries' bank accounts. 3- WHY IMMEDIATE NEEDS ASSESSMENT AND INCLUSION MONITORING ? The need to monitor and assess the situation of Dalits and minorities and level of inclusion or exclusion in all government and humanitarian interventions at this stage of the calamity is founded on the past documented shreds of evidence and 3 http://www.disastermgmt.bih.nic.in/press%20notes/PR09092017Evening.pdf 4 http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/india-bihar-state-reels-unprecedented-flooding- 170820174216830.html 5 experience of caste-based discrimination and exclusion discovered during floods of 2007, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016 in Bihar5 . In past there has been cases of rampant discrimination with the Dalits and marginalized communities right from the early warning up to the rehabilitation of affected communities in responses from government have neglected Dalits inclusion monitoring. Additionally to this Dalits, Minorities and marginalized communities are most deprived and vulnerable to the impact of disasters and less able to recover without support. The societal processes often deny relief and rehabilitation benefit them . Thus, ‘Discrimination by default’ in Disaster Response and Risk Reduction (DR & DRR) becomes as much an issue as discrimination by norm and intent and is prevalent both within civil society and administration. Taking this into account and having primary focus for the inclusion of Dalit, Minorities and Marginalized communities in Disaster Response by State agencies there is need to have urgent action for Immediate Needs Assessment and Monitoring of Disaster relief towards communities at margins. Linking to the overall objective of assuring rights and entitlements of Dalits , Minorities and Marginalized communities.