Humanitarian Response and Challenges: Tsunami in Coastal India

This report provides an in-depth analysis of the humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, focusing on the devastating impact on the coastal regions of India. It examines the application of humanitarian aid, particularly the role of NGOs like UNICEF in providing essential resources such a...Read More

Running head: THE HUMANITARIAN WORLD
The Humanitarian World
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1THE HUMANITARIAN WORLD
Application of Humanitarian response
In the following paper I am going to discuss about how the humanitarian response is
applied to the disaster situations. My focus will be on the natural disaster names Tsunami that
came about in the year 2004 in the coastal regions of India. The southern cities of India were
very badly destroyed (Luis, Dolinskaya and Smilowitz 2012). I was very much worried about the
overall well being of the people in those areas. The tsunami appeared at the early morning in
some of the areas in near the ocean and thousands of people died and millions became homeless.
Many NGOs came to the aid of the distressed people in the regions. The UNICEF also came to
the aid of these people who were mostly poor men mostly comprising of the poor villagers,
farmers, fishermen and others (Cozzolino 2012). More than 200000 people were feared to be
dead. The UNICEF members provided clean water and food to these distressed people. I must
thank these brave people from UNICEF who came up to the help of these people. The programs
supported by the UNICEF helped to make transformation in the tsunami affected communities.
The tsunami had wiped away the schools and the hospitals. This is why the other people and the
then Indian Government also came to the aid of the people in this natural disaster (Cozzolino
2012).
Funding challenges
Several funding challenges came in this context as well. It has to be remembered that the
people who suffered there were mostly the poor men. This is why they needed the best financial
aid and help with enough supply of food and water. Many NGOs came forward to help the needy
people affected by the tsunami (Pelling 2012). Both the domestic funding and the international
funding had been practiced in this section because it needed a huge amount of money because of
the immense damage that had been already done (Luis, Dolinskaya and Smilowitz 2012). The
people faced some challenges in this discourse that include the inappropriate proportion of
funding by the Government and the funding systems were not mobilized properly as well. The
Disaster Relief Fund did not work as expected by the people. Some corruption also took place in
the disaster relief as well (Weiss 2018). The disaster costs were neither allocated properly nor
were they implemented as well. Some technical hazards also were being practiced. This suggests
that the implementation plan was not at all properly placed. The coordination among the several

2THE HUMANITARIAN WORLD
domestic stakeholders was not practiced in this context. The cost-effectiveness for the disaster
management plan might not have been prepared as well (Day et al. 2012).
Coordinating responses
The tsunami in India in the year 2004 needed the coordination of the several NGOs to get
over the natural disaster in the best ways. Various NGOs came forward as the helping hand for
the suffering people. The bodies who were involved in this context as the stakeholders provided
much help to this cause. The Government also played a big role through the help of the Indian
Defense forces (Day et al. 2012). The helicopters of the Indian Air Force and Indian navy were
used as the means of communication for sending the disaster relief to the most affected areas. All
the assessment tools were being put into the proper position so the important backdrops could be
monitored (Weiss 2018). I believe the coordination among the several NGOs would be very
impactful for the overall success of the disaster relief programs. I have also learned that the
NGOs who are associated with this program should have the best communication so they can
interchange their views how they can approach the difficult situations and reach the affected
areas sooner. This interchange of the ideas will surely work better for the betterment of the
disaster situations, mostly the ones caused by nature (Pelling 2012).
Humanitarian principles and values
In this section I should address the fact the no country has got any right to ignore the
needs of aid for the people who have been affected by the natural disasters. All the resources
should be properly acknowledged in this discourse and it is the responsibility of the Government
to address the issues properly (Paton and Johnston 2017). The NGOs must be able to implement
the resources for the benefits of the people in the best ways. As the natural disasters are
considered to be the emergency situations all the NGOs, various stakeholders and most
importantly the Government must not take the things very lightly. They should try to move the
affected people to a safe place where they could stay for a few months before the disaster
recovery programs finish. According to my humanitarian principles, the NGOs should try to
assure the people that they will be sage and they will be given the rehabilitation and money to
begin a new life with the help of the Government (Pelling 2012). As the people affected by

3THE HUMANITARIAN WORLD
Tsunami in India lived in the coastal areas they should have been removed to the safe place far
from the ocean and given psychological support to get over the trauma (Cozzolino 2012).
Application of humanitarian principles
I think it is very important to apply the several humanitarian principles to secure the
rights of the human beings to get a safe habitation with adequate supply of food and water. I
must say that this dealing will be with the independent nations and several NGOs deployed there
would belong to the independent nations as well (Cozzolino 2012). If the local government asks
for help from the NGOs of the other countries they should take the consent from the home
country and proceed with the work. The NGOs should always go by the several codes of
conducts so they should put the aid of the affected persons on the top of their priority list
(Porwal, Padalia and Roy 2012). My opinion is that the affected state should play the pioneering
role for the coordination, integration, initiation, cooperation and implementing the humanitarian
principles for the people of the affected country.

4THE HUMANITARIAN WORLD
References
Cozzolino, A., 2012. Humanitarian logistics and supply chain management. In Humanitarian
logistics (pp. 5-16). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Cozzolino, A., 2012. Humanitarian logistics: cross-sector cooperation in disaster relief
management. Springer Science & Business Media.
Day, J.M., Melnyk, S.A., Larson, P.D., Davis, E.W. and Whybark, D.C., 2012. Humanitarian
and disaster relief supply chains: a matter of life and death. Journal of Supply Chain
Management, 48(2), pp.21-36.
Luis, E., Dolinskaya, I.S. and Smilowitz, K.R., 2012. Disaster relief routing: Integrating research
and practice. Socio-economic planning sciences, 46(1), pp.88-97.
Paton, D. and Johnston, D., 2017. Disaster resilience: an integrated approach. Charles C
Thomas Publisher.
Pelling, M., 2012. The vulnerability of cities: natural disasters and social resilience. Routledge.
Porwal, M.C., Padalia, H. and Roy, P.S., 2012. Impact of tsunami on the forest and biodiversity
richness in Nicobar Islands (Andaman and Nicobar Islands), India. Biodiversity and
Conservation, 21(5), pp.1267-1287.
Weiss, T.G., 2018. Humanitarian challenges and intervention. Routledge.