Disasters like floods, droughts, cyclones, storms, earthquakes, landslides, road accidents, riots and communal violence still pose the same hazards to the people in South Asia as it did a hundred years ago. The victims of these calamities are mostly the poor. Researches show that there are many social and economic causes as well as certain degrees of human contribution which translates the latent hazards into full blown disasters.

The government, the media and the society as a whole remain largely ignorant of the nature of disaster, its underlying causes and its management.

Duryog Nivaran (meaning disaster mitigation in Sanskrit) is a network of individuals and organisations working in South Asia. Committed to promoting the alternative perspective on disasters and vulnerability as a basis for disaster mitigation in the region, this forum is a pioneer effort in the region to present varying perceptions of disasters in the search of alternative, lasting and constructive ways of addressing this problem.

The way disaster issues are portrayed by the media indicate our poor awareness, lack of understanding and coordination in disaster preparedness. As a result our attitude towards disasters, we tend to look at it from a fatalist point of view. Something that makes news headlines, creates sensation for sometime and then is no longer news worthy.

We can make a difference by educating ourselves to see beyond an event and the immediate aftermath. Mass media should be called upon to bring the causes and forces behind an event to the fore. Disaster preparedness must be an integral part both in planning and performance.

These issues were highlighted during a media meet recently organised by Duryog Niwaran.