Online ISSN: 2515-8260

A study on the Role of Social Capital in Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience Building evidence from the coastal communities, Odisha, India

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Jaya Krishna Behera

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to highlight the role Social capital played in protecting the most vulnerable families and individuals in emergency and carried out series of preventive and preparedness strategies to effectively manage risk and crisis situation during the wake of disaster. The researcher primarily engaged qualitative methods of data collection like focused group discussion, key informant interview and observation. Men and women from the different occupation very much affected by disasters like flood and cyclone in the year 2011(great flood), 2013 (cyclone Phailin) and 2019 (cyclone Fani) participated in the data collection process. The empirical results suggest that social capital in the form of bonding, bridging and linking extended humanitarian support to the individuals, families and communities in pre, during and post disaster situation especially providing relief, rescue, and evacuation and above all solaced the people suffered from psychological and physical shocks due to horrendous loss of livelihood and infrastructure they witnessed. The immediate support, cooperation and help that the disaster victims received are they themselves. Before the govt. administration or any external help reaches, people in the communities helped each other for survival. Social capital for and with the most vulnerable people is like an informal insurance in cases of disasters. These findings may be eye-opening fact for the readers, researchers, developmental professional and policy makers to formulate a road map to build resilient communities.

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