Cyclone Fengal, which struck the Union Territory (UT) of Pondicherry in late November 2024, offers a critical opportunity to evaluate the efficacy of India's institutional disaster management framework at the sub-national level. This paper presents an empirical study examining the shortcomings of the current management approach and the consequent need to build long-term cyclone resilience. Employing a primary data collection method through structured surveys with affected residents, the study assesses public perception across key dimensions of the disaster response cycle: early warning dissemination, government assistance, and community engagement. The findings reveal a mixed but instructive picture. The state apparatus performed creditably in areas requiring top-down coordination, with respondents reporting reasonable satisfaction with the early warning systems, the timeliness of news dissemination through official channels, and the provision of post-disaster government assistance. However, the analysis exposes a significant structural deficiency: the management strategy largely failed to institutionalise civil society partnerships and grassroots community participation in preparedness, response, and recovery planning. This gap indicates that the prevailing model remains predominantly government-centric and reactive, rather than collaborative and anticipatory. The paper argues that such an approach, while adequate for immediate relief, is insufficient for cultivating durable resilience against increasingly frequent and intense cyclonic events linked to climate variability. Drawing on the Fengal case, the study recommends a paradigm shift toward a decentralised, community-inclusive disaster management model that formally integrates local institutions, civil society organisations, and citizen volunteers into all phases of the disaster management cycle, thereby strengthening both state capacity and societal resilience in coastal India.
Sanjay Sharma, Sunil Kumar, Maneesh Kumar· International Journal of Dis...· 0 citations
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are broadly recognised as independent civil society actors that contest social injustice and advance community empowerment. Yet their autonomy and governance are increasingly compromised by political interference operating through regulatory mechanisms, funding structures, and informal patronage networks. This study adopts a qualitative research design, drawing on semi-structured interviews with key informants from 120 small and medium-sized Delhi-based NGOs, purposively selected based on organisational size, funding structure, and exposure to political and regulatory constraints. Data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive thematic analysis. Primary findings were triangulated with secondary literature, government notifications, and publicly documented cases, including materials related to the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) and its 2020 amendment. Political interference operates not only through direct control but via indirect mechanisms that normalise compliance, produce self-censorship, and reconfigure accountability as a disciplinary instrument. Loss of community trust (80%) and loss of organisational autonomy (75%) were the most frequently reported consequences. Findings further reveal governance distortions, including the weakening of internal democratic practices and downward accountability, and the structural production of mission drift and advocacy depoliticisation. The study concludes that preserving NGO autonomy requires stronger internal governance, funding diversification, and transparent self-regulatory mechanisms. State regulatory frameworks should safeguard NGOs’ democratic and moral role rather than constrain their operational capacity. The paper contributes to the growing debate on civil society co-optation, the autonomy–accountability paradox, and the conditions required for NGOs to remain genuine democratic actors.
Himanshi Singh, Satender, Sunil Kumar et al.· Political Discourse· 0 citations
