Ex-Gratia Response to Disasters by the Indian Government

From time immemorial, the impact of a disaster is associated with the monetary loss faced by the community or an individual. In most cases, it is recovered either from the government or the perpetrator of the disaster. In many countries, money is allotted for disaster response intervention in the Government. In India, the Central and State Governments have been pro-active in awarding compensation which is mostly ex-gratia. In most man-made disasters, reliance is placed on the Courts to determine the quantum of damages. The decision of granting compensation and monetary assistance is swayed by the ad-hoc nature of the State machinery supplemented by a wide range of parameters determined by Courts on a case by case basis. The paper throws light on the impact of this uncertainty of post-disaster response and compensation on the lives of the victims. To address this, it presents case studies of the victims of the Puttingal Temple Fire in the Kollam district in Kerala in 2016. The case studies are employed to identify the challenges faced by affected individuals and families faced while dealing with monetary assistance extended after the incident by the State and Central governments. They cover monetary and medical assistance to the victims. The input is expected to emphasize the need for moving away from an ad-hoc approach to a more right-based approach. The study throws light on vulnerabilities of the victims to identify better measures of creating a right-based approach to support the affected people.