Failure and Hope: Living or Not with Disability after the 2001 Gujarat Earthquake

Abstract

Survivors of disasters can carry scars on their bodies and in their minds for a long time. Gujarat was jolted by a strong earthquake on January 26, 2001, on the day when India was celebrating its Republic Day (Mistry et al., 2001). Disasters can lead to a number of disabilities—including physical, emotional, and social—with multiple complications. This article focuses on the survivors of the Gujarat earthquake that left 166,836 reported cases of injury (Mistry et al., 2001) of which 5,029 were provided with mobility devices such as wheelchairs and crutches (Chatterjee, 2002). There were many cases of permanent disabilities due to either amputation or spinal cord injury (SCI). More than 100 survivors became paraplegic or quadriplegic (The Indian People’s Tribunal on Environmental and Human Rights (IPT), 2001).