On October 29 night, 1999, the Super Cyclone ripped through Odisha and created unprecedented havoc. Kharanta Tutha village was destroyed and the houses were damaged. Basanti Nayak and her husband Khirod took shelter under a tree.
Basanti Nayak was pregnant and was in extreme pain. Khirod took Basanti to the nearest Red Cross cyclone shelter. Immediately, the godown of the cyclone shelter was converted into a labor room. In the shelter a woman named Ambika Jena helped Basanti being a nurse, as she was experienced enough being a mother of five children.
The condition was so worse that the umbilical cord of the new born baby was removed with the help of a coin after sharpening it first. The baby took birth safely thereafter and as he spent the first week of his life in the Red Cross cyclone shelter his father Khirod and mother Basanti kept his name as “Red Cross”.
As per the Government of India report, the 1999 Cyclone was the biggest disaster in south Asia where 10,000 people and 3 lakh animals died. But 40,000 people could be rescued as prior to the cyclone, Odisha Red Cross was able to build 23 cyclone shelters in the coastal area.
In 1936, the Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch was initiated in our State. The Governors of Odisha were the ex-officio president of Red Cross State branch. From time to time, the presidents give appointment to the State secretaries for the state branch. In the leadership of the State secretaries, the State branch usually functions. Few years ago, the State branch was very active, as mentioned above. Till date, Red Cross State branch has completed 75 cyclone shelters. The State branch along with the cyclone shelters adopted villages, training the people in the field of disaster preparedness and management, first- aid response, youth leadership etc, organizing search and rescue operations, health camps, blood donation camps, conducting relief operations, blood grouping camps, ambulance service, Nirbana service, family counselling services and many more.
The State Red Cross was able to do these types of works with the help of life members and volunteers. There was a monthly life members meeting and from that meeting the secretary chose the active life members and build small different groups and committees like Fund Raising Committee, Relief Committee, Finance Committee, Adopted Village Committee, Purchase Committee etc.
The Red Cross State branch was also managing 55 blood banks in the name and style of Red Cross. But when the Indian Red Cross Society observes its centenary year, the Odisha State branch appears very tired. The organisation is active but the appointed secretaries do not have the determination to carry the organization forward. The president always gave appointment to either a retired person or the officers from the Health department those who have one or two years for retirement. In this case they do not have any interest to do the work; on the other hand, they just want to run the State Red Cross as a Government office.
Red Cross is a voluntary and also member based organization, and true development would happen if the volunteers and members gather together and discuss stuffs which they do not want to agree. So the State branch is on the verge of getting destroyed.
The Odisha Red Cross State branch is a branch of Indian Red Cross Society and Indian Red Cross Society is also a part of the largest humanitarian organization of the world. The renowned Nobel award winner Jean Henry Dunant is the founder of Red Cross. In his initiative the international Red Cross committee formed in 1863 and it was approved by every nations of the world in 1964 through Geneva Convention. Now Red Cross is working in more than 185 countries as the National Society. In our country it is working in the name and style of Indian Red Cross Society.
Now it is 100 years old. During the First World War in 1914, India had no organisation for relief services to the affected soldiers, except a branch of the St John Ambulance Association and by a Joint Committee of the British Red Cross. Later, a branch of the same committee was started to undertake the much needed relief services in collaboration with the St John Ambulance Association in aid of the soldiers as well as civilian sufferers of the horrors of that Great War. A bill to constitute the Indian Red Cross Society, independent of the British Red Cross, was introduced in the Indian Legislative Council on March 3, 1920 by Sir Claude Hill, member of the Viceroy's Executive Council who was also Chairman of the Joint War Committee in India. The Bill was passed on March 17, 1920 and became Act XV of 1920 with the assent of the Governor General on March 20, 1920.
In the 100th year of Indian Red Cross Society, it is a fact that the office bearers are not Red Cross minded or are not able to run the voluntary organisation in a team spirit. Election in Red Cross is the only solution to make it function in a democratic way.
(The writer is a Life Member, Indian Red Cross Society, Odisha State Branch, M-8984007600, 9938537600)