Abstract:
Social infrastructure restoration after natural disasters in India is a recurring challenge.
Often natural disasters like cyclones, storms and floods strike India causing
irreplaceable damages to different infrastructures and assets. The social infrastructures,
such as schools, houses and community centres particularly in not so developed areas
are observed to be worst hit. Restoration of such assets takes long time despite the
availability of various measures such as availability of finances, work forces and
construction and restoration guidelines. Therefore, the objectives of this investigation
are to examine the restoration management challenges of the disaster hit social
infrastructures; and to provide a theoretical socio-cultural perspective to enhance
efficiency of the restoration management process. Using three Community
Development Blocks of Odisha state in India as the case study area, a survey was
conducted among the stakeholders to ascertain the influential causes that hamper
restoration. Besides, the stakeholders engagement and interaction and their influence
on the success of the restoration process were examined. Findings suggest that
unavailability of resources (finance, materials and equipment) in time, influence of
local political and bureaucratic hierarchy, and non-effective or marginal involvement
of appropriate stakeholders are the major impediments in the restoration process.
However, general provision of finance; materials, equipment, and availability of human
resources do not necessarily ensure smooth and efficient restoration process.
Concurrently, it is also revealed that projects where deliberative constructive
engagement and trade-offs among the various stakeholders have occurred are found to
be more successful. Therefore, it is advocated that an active and constructive
engagement among the relevant actors would essentially generate the dynamics and
cohesion that would essentially enhance the efficacy of the restoration management of
the disaster hit social infrastructures.
