Ten minimum requirements in disaster mitigation, relief and rehabilitation assistance:

  1. To ensure that in any disaster, manmade or natural, it is made mandatory at the relief stage of the operations, that an initial mapping of the communities affected by the disaster is undertaken so that those engaged in the relief work are aware whether communities that are usually excluded in the social process ( those discriminated on the basis of work and descent ) are victims of the disaster.
  2. The applications/project proposals that are made for raising resources for such relief work and submitted for assistance from the European Commission should contain very specific details on the presence of or absence of such discriminated communities among the victims of the disaster. If such communities do exist, then the „special measures‟ that will be undertaken by the relief agency to ensure the specific inclusion of the communities in the implementation of the relief programme needs to be specifically outlined.
  3. Commitments should be made by the grant receiver as part of the contractual obligations to take measures against discrimination.
  4. Special attention needs to be made to ensure that the location of the relief camps, or sites from where the relief activities are carried out, are easily accessible to the „excluded‟ communities and that where necessary, special sites are created to ensure that the relief activities could be easily accessible to the excluded communities on par with the rest of the communities.
  5. While these are special conditions that relief organizations are expected to follow in such circumstances, agencies must also ensure that no direct or indirect forms of exclusion in relief work is undertaken on behalf of or by governmental, quasi governmental or other private agencies in their relief work.
  6. It is recommended that a check list against „habitual‟ acts of discrimination in relief and rehabilitation be applied in the assessment, planning and monitoring phases. (See examples of discrimination above).
  7. If acts of exclusion in the programme are witnessed, partners engaged in the relief activities being carried out with European Commission assistance shall have the moral responsibility to bring these specific acts of exclusion in relief to the senior functionaries of the government so that they are attended to immediately by them and do not have to wait for the relief work to be completed to be brought up in evaluations and reviews conducted thereafter.
  8. Agencies engaged in relief work after the disaster and proceeding to carry out rehabilitation or reconstruction work need to ensure that in their own policy for rehabilitation of the victims of the disaster, as well as that of the government, the rehabilitation programme that is being envisaged to be undertaken directly considers the existence of „excluded„ communities and incorporates and attends to these communities in drawing up their plans of action, and will be monitored during implementation and form part of any evaluation.
  9. Agencies must ensure that as far as possible the rehabilitation programs that are evolved attempt at first making the different caste communities agree to joint living / existence, non-exclusion and the specific inclusion of all „caste‟ communities in housing, capacity building programs for the communities and employment generation programs or livelihood support programs. It is only such efforts that could gradually work towards more inclusive policies and programs.
  10. Agencies engaged in such relief and rehabilitation works also need to ensure that representatives of the „ excluded „ communities are engaged as staff in the delivery phase of the relief and rehabilitation programmes, in order to ensure participation of the excluded communities in the relief and rehabilitation phase of the work. b>Read the IDSN study on caste-based discrimination in South Asia (commissioned by the European Commission)Read the IDSN study on caste-based discrimination in South Asia (commissioned by the European Commission)