Next week there is presentation of mapping tools related
to social media. While going through the tools certain feelings came to my mind
related to disaster management in India, and how they are managed and social media tools can be effectively used for the same. Here it is:
India has really been unlucky as severe natural disasters
strike at regular intervals in one part or another, taking huge toll on lives
and loss of properties. It was in Uttarakhand. Devastating flood and landslide
caused huge loss of properties and lives. Over 5,000 people lost their lives
and properties worth over Rs 3,500 crore were damaged in the state.
Last year also a disaster of similar scale struck Jammu
& Kashmir (J&K). Over 200 people have died and the number is rising
every day. Like Uttarakhand, recent floods in J&K clearly manifests the
country as a whole is still not prepared to quickly respond, through its
established institutional mechanism from the national to district levels, to
such disasters.
Unfortunately, India is unable to meet the challenge of
efficient disaster management, though it has a national body called National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which carries the
mandate to strategise and implement disaster management policies and actions in
an integrated manner right from the centre to district level. Only a few states
like Gujarat, Odisha, with its own initiatives, institutions and preparedness
managed to deal with any kind of disasters efficiently.
The Indian
Army, for first time, used social media such as twitter, WhatsApp, a messaging service, and Facebook , in its search and rescue operations, and to collate and
feed Person Finder provided by Google to the army’s public information office. According to Indian army’s “a dedicated team of two young
officers" handled the social media “practically around the clock”. An
estimated 12,000 people, according to the Indian army sources, were assisted on
the basis of reports received over the social media.
Social media can be
used to send updates from different locations but it provides a platform to
collect all the information at one place and then allows people to feed upon
them and act as required. There has been an emergence of data aggregators and
numerous apps which can help the state agencies or otherwise .Disaster
management Applications like Ushahidi increasingly
being deployed during disasters to collect incidents and create impact maps.
These maps are then used to prioritize dispatching of help. It has been used
for gathering volunteers and helping them provide help in the areas they are
nearest to. People in need leave messages for help or inform their loved one
that they are fine. It also used to locate missing people who might have run
away to protect themselves.
The penetration of smart phones and internet has been highest in the
recent times in the developing countries. India and China which are densely
populated have seen a leap in the adoption of technology. Though we need to
accept that far flung areas and villages are yet to see the dawn of this change
but adoption rate will be quicker. Way back in 2001 when Gujarat was hit by an
Earthquake there had hardly been any sign of use of Social media. However come
2013 and social media played quiet a significant role in Uttarakhand floods.
The use of social media is through gadgets like mobile phones, ipads or
laptops by using internet. There is a high dependence of internet on the
regional power and communication infrastructures. Disasters are often
accompanied by electric power loss and ability to communicate over the phone or
via internet. Add to this the fact when the entire internet enabled population
turns to social media for communication. The present infrastructure might not
be fully capable to handle that much of information leading to data overload
and communication failures.
Even the most regular users of social media might be unaware of certain
intricacies which could help in better relief dispatch. For example all the
smart phones today have GPS which provides the exact location of the person.
Either due to privacy concerns or lack of awareness very few people share the
same. Also we need to consider the population which would be internet enabled
but is not aware of its use. This mostly pertains to the older generation which
is not active on social media. This might need a lot of pre work to be done
across the world to educate people to have minimum awareness of gadgets and
social media so that they become handy when needs arises.
The benefits of using social media for disaster response are immense.
For the help providers it includes the ability to continuously update the
public with important information, getting information from citizens,
organizing volunteer efforts, and staying connected with the population at
large. For the help seekers social media provide a quick way to connect with
friends and family, update their status and stay informed about the progress of
the crisis and get help. However accompanied by positives there are huge
challenges that social media faces. The most important one is the huge flow of
information and the accompanying incapability to aggregate the same at a fast
pace to just filter the most relevant information. This leads to any and every
piece of information many of which might not be true to flow to the public at
large. Also the laws built around social media have not kept pace with its adoption
of the platform across countries leading to concerns among the being about the
privacy and liability of sharing information. This could be of huge
ramifications especially in manmade disasters where negative elements may try
to spark communal hatred. Social media in its very nascent stage has shown that
it is the future of next generation in every way. The governments, nonprofit
organizations, agencies and other institutions alike have to work fast to build
a structure around its use so that its potential could be harnessed to its hilt.
You can have social media management team for managing your social media content. Otherwise you can also count on a company that offers such management services.
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