Localized mechanism a way forward approach: A case study of covid -19 pandemic in Ladakh, India

Abstract

The importance of localized mechanisms was highly realized during the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused a global emergency. The existing mechanisms available at the international, national and state-level miserably suffered during the pandemic which increased subsequent risks in many sectors like education, health, tourism, economy, trade, supply chain and psycho-social health issues. In addition, the existing hazards are continuously occurring with their cascading implications, emphasizing a need for localized mechanisms. The present study endeavours to understand the pivotal role of localized mechanisms in emergency hazard situations. It focuses on Covid-19 as the sudden unexpected hazard in Ladakh Region, India. The impacts of the Covid-19 hazard were analyzed on different sectors with the help of the Analytical Hierarchal Process (AHP) method. The results show major impacts of Covid-19 hazard on health (0.34) followed by education (0.24), economy (0.18), trade (0.15) and psycho-social issues (0.09). The results were employed to highlight the need of localized mechanism to overcome the challenges in the existing traditional disaster management mechanism. A brief localized management mechanism has been worked out for the Covid-19 pandemic in one of the districts of Ladakh. Similarly, advanced localized mechanisms can help to deal with uncertain emergencies or sudden hazards in remote regions.