Crowd Disaster Management

In view of the recurring stampedes at places of mass gathering, including religious places, and typically ad-hoc responses to those, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had prepared ‘Suggestive Framework for Preparation of Crowd Management Plan for Events/Venues of Mass Gathering’.

Issues faced by Government:

• Governance and accountability: 
  1. There are lots of provisions in existing acts and rules for effective crowd management.
  2. However, enforcement and implementation are the key challenges faced by the administrator and law enforcement agencies. 
  3. For example, Dabwali fire tragedy and Uphaar Cinema Tragedy are the typical examples of lackadaisical approach to crowd safety.
• Poor infrastructure: 
  1. Lack of sufficient manpower in permit granting bodies, political pressure.
  2. Deployment of untrained security personnel in order to save cost.
• No crowd management plan
  1. The state governments and local authorities have not yet implemented the NDMA guidelines on crowd management.
• Rising population: 
  1. With rising population and rapid urbanization, urban areas are likely to be more susceptible along with places of frequent mass gatherings like temples.
• Tolerance to crowd: 
  1. According to scholar Teresa Moore, large-scale events in India are more susceptible to stampedes because of a greater tolerance for high-density crowds.
  2. The higher tolerance for crowded places in India allows for more people to get closer, because they don’t feel uncomfortable until it’s very packed.

Some salient points from the NDMA guidelines are as follows:

• Crowd Queues: 
  1. Initial focus should be on traffic regulations around the mass gathering venues.
  2. There should be a route map for venues along with emergency exits route maps.
  3. Also, there should be Barricade facility to control the movement of crowd queues.
  4. In case of large crowd gathering, there should be snake line approach, along with constant monitoring of crowds for developing hazard points.
• VIPs: 
  1. There should be specific plans to handle VIPs and if VIPs add the security concerns then authorities should refuse entry to VIPs.
• Communications: 
  1. There should be CCTV surveillance, along with another public address system, such as loudspeakers should be installed at all crowded points, in order to communicate with the crowds.
• Medical facilities: 
  1. Ambulance and health care professionals should be available on venues.
  2. NDMA has recommended the medical first-aid rooms and emergency operations in order to handle post-disaster emergencies.
• Basic facilities:
  1. The venue Organisers should ensure authorised use of electricity, fire safety extinguishers and other arrangements as per the safety guidelines.
• Civil society: 
  1. Police authorities should access the preparedness.
  2. Also, Event/venue managers should involve NGOs and civil society in traffic control, medical assistance and mobilization of local resources in case of disaster.
• Capacity building: 
  1. In order to be proactive, there is need to focus on the capacity building.
  2. Also, the training manual should be periodically in order to usher in new crowd management technique.
  3. Apart from that if there is issue of insufficient Security personnel, students, NGOs and civil society should be roped in.
  4. Also, the media should be trained to manage communications during crowd disasters.
• Use of technology: 
  1. Smart phones have been used to detect crowd dynamics such as pedestrian flows and bottlenecks, and social groups.
  2. Event/venue managers should get liability insurance for their visitors.
  3. Example, Shri Maa Vaishnodevi Shrine Board has insurance cover against any accidental casualty for visitors.
• Awareness Generation Campaign: 
  1. A campaign to educate the public that railway tracks cannot be treated as commons, and vigorous enforcement, will reduce the probability of train related disasters like the Amritsar case.

Conclusion:

In most of the cases, the crowd disasters are man-made disasters and such tragedies can be prevented with proactive planning and execution by the authorities involved. NDMA should also focus on a central repository of incidences so that lessons can be learnt from past.