Anshu Gupta

A man building the foundation for his home after the devastation of 2015 earthquake

Kashmir earthquake killed around 1,350 people and injured 6,266 in Jammu and Kashmir state in India. The property loss caused by the earthquake left around four million people homeless. Poor construction of the infrastructure in the affected area was reasoned as the cause for severity of damage and the high number of fatalities*.

One thing that I certainly see in each place that has suffered a large, impactful disaster is how each person is forced to start anew. Whatever they might have built of their life has now been lost owing to the disaster and hence the only option people now face is the acceptance of that loss and then going ahead with starting to rebuild their lives again. It is a common sight to see ordinary citizens who have never engaged in this kind of work, and might not even be equipped with the skills to build houses, you see them clearing rubble and working with cement to make houses somehow. The attempt is to somehow put together a shelter to spend the night.

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