IntroductionIn the past decade, India has witnessed many lapses in crowd safety during mass gathe... more IntroductionIn the past decade, India has witnessed many lapses in crowd safety during mass gatherings. The high casualty rate in stampedes during traditional mass gatherings has prompted the study of these events. Wide variations exist in casualty rates for similar events, and key issues in healthcare services in these special situations were addressed in the Indian context.MethodsFrom 2001–2010, Mass gathering data were collected from news items reported in the archives of newspapers, “The Times of India”, “The Hindu” and “The Indian Express”. The keywords used were: “stampede”, “mass gathering”, “mass-gathering events”, “mass-gathering incidents”, “crowd”, and “crowd management”. The study included triggers for the incident and the number of casualties (dead and injured) in each incident.ResultsIn 27 separate mass gatherings in India, there were 936 dead and 540 injured casualties. The unique characteristics of mass gatherings in India included a predominance of old and vulnerabl...
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2021
COVID-19 pandemic impacted countries all over the world calling as urgent need to enhance the cap... more COVID-19 pandemic impacted countries all over the world calling as urgent need to enhance the capacity of individuals and communities to respond in such disease outbreaks. Public health interventions, such as social distancing could help to protect many vulnerable people and reduce secondary transmissions within the community. This research was undertaken as a longitudinal study to identify and comprehend the preferences given to different preventive measures adopted by individuals to ensure protection against the spread of coronavirus. An online survey was conducted with a representative sample of 176 stakeholders to identify practices and behaviour adopted by the key stakeholders working in the domains of water, health and disaster risk reduction to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Delhi-National Capital Territory of India (Delhi-NCT). Findings of this study shown preferred willingness to adopt sanitisation measures, often by cleaning their hands with soap and water, and restricting...
Flood related risks have compounded across the globe in the last few years. This is largely due t... more Flood related risks have compounded across the globe in the last few years. This is largely due to increasing vulnerability caused by changing climate and rapid urbanisation. This has resulted in making the poor and marginalized sections of society, especially those inhabiting hazardous topographies, more vulnerable to disasters. Although there have been efforts to shift from a response centric approach to a more proactive approach towards disaster risk reduction, institutions continue to face hurdles in implementing disaster related initiatives. To identify these challenges faced by institutions while responding to disasters, the present research collected primary data through field visits, personal interviews and focus group discussions with officials engaged in managing disasters from national to local level in India The affected community was also surveyed. It is suggested that policy makers must consider factors like institutional arrangements, human resources, policy and plans...
There are critics who label the period of 1950-1980 as lost decades in India's development proces... more There are critics who label the period of 1950-1980 as lost decades in India's development process: there was a slow growth in GDP, large sections of the population remained untouched by development, and there was a little dent in the structure of the economy. The development indicators in the 1950 and early 1980s were not too far from each other. Such thinking, however, overlooks the fact that prior to achieving high growth anywhere, there must be a base to grow on, there is a need for functioning institutions of governance, there is a requirement for a strong human capital base, and above all, the populace at large must recognise a group/their group of people and a geographic boundary to be a nation/their nation. Until a few decades back,India was so diverse that a well-known colonial administrator once said that "recognising India as a nation is like recognising equator as a nation". The planning process in the first 4-6 decades embedded a strong sense of nation-building and establishing institutions in addition to allocation of resources. Low growth in GDP was thus inevitable, since the planning (and governance) process was also engaged in building institutions and the nation. The book by Santosh Mehrotra and Sylvie Guiscard does not speak on these issues at any length, but these are essential to mention. Every economic entity, be it an enterprise or state, undertakes planning; they take decisions on raising and allocating resources, forecasting, deploying personnel, undertaking M&E exercises, etc. Yet, for a variety of reasons more historic than otherwise,planning and the Planning Commission in India (PCI) have been identified with a socialistic system. The formal central planning system was discontinued in 2014, though the planning process, at least sectorally, is much in place. Most states too maintain a Planning Unit/Department. This book by Santosh Mehrotra and Sylvie Guiscard entitled "Planning in the 20th Century and Beyond" discusses the Planning Commission of India (PCI) and the planning process, how the PCI was formed, the role it played in India's development, how it moulded itself over time to suit the situations (e.g. it became more
Background: Since the publication of the topic of human stampedes in 2008, two separate but compl... more Background: Since the publication of the topic of human stampedes in 2008, two separate but complementary databases have emerged: the Ngai Search Method and the Roy Search Method. The objective of this study is to estimate the degree of underreporting by comparing the Ngai Search Method to the Roy Search Method. Method: During the 17th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine in Beijing in 2011, both search methods were compared for reported human stampede events in India between 2001 and 2010. Results: Using the Ngai method, 34 human stampedes were identified. Using a previously defined stampede scale 2 events were class I; 21 events were class II; 8 events were class III; and 3 events were class IV. The median deaths were 5.5 per event and median injuries were 13.5 per event. For the same time period, the Roy method identified a total of 27 events, including 9 unique events that were not identified by the Ngai method. Of these 9 events, three fell under Ngai’s exclusion c...
Two separate but complementary epidemiologic surveillance methods for human stampedes have emerge... more Two separate but complementary epidemiologic surveillance methods for human stampedes have emerged since the publication of the topic in 2009. The objective of this study is to estimate the degree of underreporting in India. The Ngai Search Method was compared to the Roy Search Method for human stampede events occurring in India between 2001 and 2010. A total of 40 stampedes were identified by both search methods. Using the Ngai method, 34 human stampedes were identified. Using a previously defined stampede scale: 2 events were class I, 21 events were class II, 8 events were class III, and 3 events were class IV. The median deaths were 5.5 per event and median injuries were 13.5 per event. Using the Roy method, 27 events were identified, including 9 events that were not identified by the Ngai method. After excluding events based on exclusion criteria, six additional events identified by the Roy's method had a median of 4 deaths and 30 injuries. In multivariate analysis using the Ngai method, religious (6.52, 95%CI 1.73-24.66, p=0.006) and political (277.09, 95%CI 5.12-15,001.96, p=0.006) events had higher relative number of deaths. Many causes accounting for the global increase in human stampede events can only be elucidated through systematic epidemiological investigation. Focusing on a country with a high recurrence of human stampedes, we compare two independent methods of data abstraction in an effort to improve the existing database and to identify pertinent risk factors. We concluded that our previous publication underestimated stampede events in India by approximately 18% and an international standardized database to systematically record occurrence of human stampedes is needed to facilitate understanding of the epidemiology of human stampedes.
IntroductionIn the past decade, India has witnessed many lapses in crowd safety during mass gathe... more IntroductionIn the past decade, India has witnessed many lapses in crowd safety during mass gatherings. The high casualty rate in stampedes during traditional mass gatherings has prompted the study of these events. Wide variations exist in casualty rates for similar events, and key issues in healthcare services in these special situations were addressed in the Indian context.MethodsFrom 2001–2010, Mass gathering data were collected from news items reported in the archives of newspapers, “The Times of India”, “The Hindu” and “The Indian Express”. The keywords used were: “stampede”, “mass gathering”, “mass-gathering events”, “mass-gathering incidents”, “crowd”, and “crowd management”. The study included triggers for the incident and the number of casualties (dead and injured) in each incident.ResultsIn 27 separate mass gatherings in India, there were 936 dead and 540 injured casualties. The unique characteristics of mass gatherings in India included a predominance of old and vulnerabl...
International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 2021
COVID-19 pandemic impacted countries all over the world calling as urgent need to enhance the cap... more COVID-19 pandemic impacted countries all over the world calling as urgent need to enhance the capacity of individuals and communities to respond in such disease outbreaks. Public health interventions, such as social distancing could help to protect many vulnerable people and reduce secondary transmissions within the community. This research was undertaken as a longitudinal study to identify and comprehend the preferences given to different preventive measures adopted by individuals to ensure protection against the spread of coronavirus. An online survey was conducted with a representative sample of 176 stakeholders to identify practices and behaviour adopted by the key stakeholders working in the domains of water, health and disaster risk reduction to curb the spread of COVID-19 in Delhi-National Capital Territory of India (Delhi-NCT). Findings of this study shown preferred willingness to adopt sanitisation measures, often by cleaning their hands with soap and water, and restricting...
Flood related risks have compounded across the globe in the last few years. This is largely due t... more Flood related risks have compounded across the globe in the last few years. This is largely due to increasing vulnerability caused by changing climate and rapid urbanisation. This has resulted in making the poor and marginalized sections of society, especially those inhabiting hazardous topographies, more vulnerable to disasters. Although there have been efforts to shift from a response centric approach to a more proactive approach towards disaster risk reduction, institutions continue to face hurdles in implementing disaster related initiatives. To identify these challenges faced by institutions while responding to disasters, the present research collected primary data through field visits, personal interviews and focus group discussions with officials engaged in managing disasters from national to local level in India The affected community was also surveyed. It is suggested that policy makers must consider factors like institutional arrangements, human resources, policy and plans...
There are critics who label the period of 1950-1980 as lost decades in India's development proces... more There are critics who label the period of 1950-1980 as lost decades in India's development process: there was a slow growth in GDP, large sections of the population remained untouched by development, and there was a little dent in the structure of the economy. The development indicators in the 1950 and early 1980s were not too far from each other. Such thinking, however, overlooks the fact that prior to achieving high growth anywhere, there must be a base to grow on, there is a need for functioning institutions of governance, there is a requirement for a strong human capital base, and above all, the populace at large must recognise a group/their group of people and a geographic boundary to be a nation/their nation. Until a few decades back,India was so diverse that a well-known colonial administrator once said that "recognising India as a nation is like recognising equator as a nation". The planning process in the first 4-6 decades embedded a strong sense of nation-building and establishing institutions in addition to allocation of resources. Low growth in GDP was thus inevitable, since the planning (and governance) process was also engaged in building institutions and the nation. The book by Santosh Mehrotra and Sylvie Guiscard does not speak on these issues at any length, but these are essential to mention. Every economic entity, be it an enterprise or state, undertakes planning; they take decisions on raising and allocating resources, forecasting, deploying personnel, undertaking M&E exercises, etc. Yet, for a variety of reasons more historic than otherwise,planning and the Planning Commission in India (PCI) have been identified with a socialistic system. The formal central planning system was discontinued in 2014, though the planning process, at least sectorally, is much in place. Most states too maintain a Planning Unit/Department. This book by Santosh Mehrotra and Sylvie Guiscard entitled "Planning in the 20th Century and Beyond" discusses the Planning Commission of India (PCI) and the planning process, how the PCI was formed, the role it played in India's development, how it moulded itself over time to suit the situations (e.g. it became more
Background: Since the publication of the topic of human stampedes in 2008, two separate but compl... more Background: Since the publication of the topic of human stampedes in 2008, two separate but complementary databases have emerged: the Ngai Search Method and the Roy Search Method. The objective of this study is to estimate the degree of underreporting by comparing the Ngai Search Method to the Roy Search Method. Method: During the 17th World Congress on Disaster and Emergency Medicine in Beijing in 2011, both search methods were compared for reported human stampede events in India between 2001 and 2010. Results: Using the Ngai method, 34 human stampedes were identified. Using a previously defined stampede scale 2 events were class I; 21 events were class II; 8 events were class III; and 3 events were class IV. The median deaths were 5.5 per event and median injuries were 13.5 per event. For the same time period, the Roy method identified a total of 27 events, including 9 unique events that were not identified by the Ngai method. Of these 9 events, three fell under Ngai’s exclusion c...
Two separate but complementary epidemiologic surveillance methods for human stampedes have emerge... more Two separate but complementary epidemiologic surveillance methods for human stampedes have emerged since the publication of the topic in 2009. The objective of this study is to estimate the degree of underreporting in India. The Ngai Search Method was compared to the Roy Search Method for human stampede events occurring in India between 2001 and 2010. A total of 40 stampedes were identified by both search methods. Using the Ngai method, 34 human stampedes were identified. Using a previously defined stampede scale: 2 events were class I, 21 events were class II, 8 events were class III, and 3 events were class IV. The median deaths were 5.5 per event and median injuries were 13.5 per event. Using the Roy method, 27 events were identified, including 9 events that were not identified by the Ngai method. After excluding events based on exclusion criteria, six additional events identified by the Roy's method had a median of 4 deaths and 30 injuries. In multivariate analysis using the Ngai method, religious (6.52, 95%CI 1.73-24.66, p=0.006) and political (277.09, 95%CI 5.12-15,001.96, p=0.006) events had higher relative number of deaths. Many causes accounting for the global increase in human stampede events can only be elucidated through systematic epidemiological investigation. Focusing on a country with a high recurrence of human stampedes, we compare two independent methods of data abstraction in an effort to improve the existing database and to identify pertinent risk factors. We concluded that our previous publication underestimated stampede events in India by approximately 18% and an international standardized database to systematically record occurrence of human stampedes is needed to facilitate understanding of the epidemiology of human stampedes.
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