3.1. Challenges Faced by Residents

So, the moment when these NGOs when these agencies come into the picture, many at times what they do is they perceive the local knowledge, they perceive that this system, this particular social system has failed to receive the expected conditions of life from the system.

When NGOs and agencies enter a community, they often recognize that the local social systems are not functioning effectively. This means that residents are not meeting their basic life expectations—such as safety, shelter, or livelihood—due to failures in their local systems. The presence of these NGOs highlights the weaknesses of the existing community frameworks.

Imagine a teacher coming to a struggling school and pointing out that the educational system isn't working. The teachers might identify flaws but may not fully understand the cultural context of the community's teaching methods and needs.

But then the many of the relief operations, when they come into the rescue or the rehabilitation projects, they try to reject and in favour of the systems familiar to an exercised by the relief culture.

Relief operations often prioritize their own, familiar methods over local traditions. This means that instead of working with the community's existing practices, they impose their own systems without considering how the locals might have successfully adapted to their circumstances in the past.

This is like a chef coming into a traditional restaurant and insisting on using their recipe, ignoring the restaurant's unique and beloved dishes that the local patrons enjoy.

And a victim culture is always being made aware of the failure of the local, traditional and indigenous systems to either anticipate the disaster or be able to cope up when it happens.

The focus on failures can lead to a 'victim culture' among residents. They become increasingly aware of their shortcomings, fostering a mentality that they cannot manage their lives without external assistance. This mentality can erode community confidence and leadership, making them more susceptible to outside influences.

Think of a student who repeatedly hears negative feedback on their abilities. They start to believe they can't succeed independently, leading them to rely on others for help rather than improving their skills through practice.

So, basically the moment you, the institution comes in working to serve you and that is where they see that this whole system has failed, they never see that how this has survived all these years, how they used to live, what are the mechanisms that they do have, so that complete ignorance of lack of understanding of the system that brings a big gap.

Institutions entering the community often fail to appreciate how local systems have historically provided for the community. This oversight creates a significant gap in understanding the community's resilience and adaptability. Instead of recognizing pre-existing strengths, NGOs may view everything as a failure, which can lead to misguided interventions.

It's like a new manager coming into a successful business and disregarding the experienced employees' methods, thinking they must start from scratch rather than leveraging existing knowledge.

That is where such kind of situations you know when they were made aware that your system have failed that is where they leads to the loss of faith in the traditional leadership and hierarchies of the social and the religious order making the distressed community still more prone to the external influence.

When residents begin to believe their traditional systems have failed, this leads to a decline in trust in local leaders and social hierarchies. As trust fades, community members become more vulnerable to outside influences and interventions, which can erode the social fabric of the community even further.

Imagine a neighborhood that once thrived on community gatherings losing faith in their leaders due to a failed local initiative. Residents might start looking elsewhere for guidance, which weakens their local ties and increases reliance on external help.

So, many of these reports whether we talk about the damage statistics, how much loss of life is damaged, how much property has been damaged, they are narrowed down to the numericals, they are narrowed down to the surface structures of the society and they are often reduced to the statistical terms.

Disaster assessments often focus merely on numbers, such as the amount of property lost or lives affected. This reductionist view ignores the deeper social and cultural complexities involved in community recovery and resilience. By prioritizing statistics, essential narratives about the community's experience are overlooked.

This is akin to evaluating a school by only considering test scores without acknowledging the unique challenges and stories of individual students that contribute to overall performance.

So, if you look at these villages called Bheemunipatnam, you can see the traditional patterns of living, they have the thatched roof systems, which have a very low eaves because of the cyclone-affected areas and the coastal areas.

The traditional architecture in villages like Bheemunipatnam is designed specifically to withstand local climatic conditions. The thatched roofs and low eaves are not just aesthetic choices; they are functional adaptations that reflect the community's long-standing understanding of their environment and how to live sustainably within it.

Consider how desert-dwelling cultures build homes with thick walls and small windows to preserve coolness. These structures embody their deep understanding of and adaptation to the local climate.

But if you look at the modern constructions, you can see even the drainage has left just alone like this, so which means the agencies are looked only at a house but not as a system of things, a settlement is not just only a group of houses.

Modern construction efforts often focus on building individual houses without consideration of the overall community system. This lack of systemic thinking neglects critical infrastructure like drainage, electricity, and water supply, which are vital for a functioning habitat. An effective approach needs to see settlements as interconnected systems rather than isolated entities.

It's similar to trying to fix a car by focusing only on the engine without considering the transmission, wheels, or brakes. Without addressing the whole system, the car will still not function properly.

For instance, this is a story of a house as a joint family house... So, then they said, yeah we mostly sleep here being a coastal area we can sleep there because that 5000 was not sufficient for us to keep all the rules.

A common example of government assistance is providing a flat amount to rebuild homes, such as the mentioned 5000 rupees. However, this often fails to account for the reality of living arrangements, such as joint families where multiple households share a single structure. This simplistic financial aid can lead to inadequate rebuilding and prolonged housing insecurity.

Think about people trying to fit into a designated parking spot that is too small for their car. Just as the car doesn't fit comfortably, residents cannot utilize the inadequate financial aid to rebuild a home that meets their actual living circumstances.

I used to take some interviews with them and then I asked a fisherman why, they said our fishing needs are very different, we want to stay close to the seashore though we like a particular house but still our needs are little different.

Cultural needs play a significant role in housing decisions. Fishermen may prefer living closer to the coast to support their livelihood, even if better houses are built further inland. This illustrates how a one-size-fits-all approach to disaster recovery can neglect the unique cultural and economic needs of different community members.

Just as a bicycle shop wouldn't sell racing bikes to a mountain biking community, housing solutions must align with the specific needs and lifestyles of the people they serve.

That is where, we say about the house is a denotative whereas, a home is a connotative.

The distinction between a house and a home is crucial in community resilience. A house is a physical structure, but a home encompasses the emotional and social context of living within that structure. This distinction helps understand the deeper significance of spaces in people’s lives and how housing solutions need to consider social relationships and community bonds.

Consider that an apartment in a city might be seen as merely a 'house' to a transient student, while for a family who has lived there for generations, it holds valuable memories and emotions, qualifying it as a 'home.'

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