Patchy relief: Lessons from Jajarkot

The question is how quickly and effectively emergency support reaches those in need.

The first responders in any disaster events are always family members, neighbours and members of local communities affected by the disaster. They are the ones wading into the wreckage to pull survivors out, gathering resources and rudimentary relief materials and performing whatever first aid they can to save lives. And they do so without any real understanding of the scale or severity of the damage because lives are at stake, and time is of the essence. However, beyond that, the state and its mighty weight are needed to carry out further rescue and relief operations, particularly in situations requiring precision where negligence could be fatal.