And so, I was reading up on the current crisis in Somalia and the entire horn of Africa, as part of an assignment to write an essay on it. There is a huge requirement for funds there and countries and organisations from world over are contributing. So, naturally I was curious to know what India did for the cause. All the figures are available at United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)'s financial tracking site. Suffice to say, it was a huge disappointment to see India's table. We had pledged an amount of $ 8,000,000 and ended up contributing zero(as on oct 3, 2011).
2011- Pledge of $ 8,000,000 for Horn of Africa drought and that of $ 1,000,000 for Myanmar earthquake not honoured
The site has an easily searchable archive of contributions that each country has provided during various disasters the world over in the last decade. India had failed to honour their pledges on three previous occasions in this decade-2010,2007,2005.
2005. Pledge of $ 25,000,000 not fulfilled for earthquake in South Asia
2007-Pledge of $50,000 for Peru earthquake and that of $ 1,000,000 for Bangladesh cyclone, not honoured.
2010-Pledge of $ 5,000,000 for Chile earthquake not honoured.
At the same time, it has to be said that India did contribute to various other causes during the same time period. But pledging help and then failing to honour it is an entirely different matter. The question is, was this money ever released? And if so, where was it re-routed to? Or, whether it is a case of just pledging some money and then forgetting about it? I have no idea where to look for, to answer these questions. Can someone help?
2 comments:
Pledging is something, but 'handing-over' is quite another something!
No clue. This is seriously weird. Someone needs to raise this as an issue...!
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