Context: A recent stampede at M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru left 11 dead and more than 50 injured.
India has the highest number of stampedes and resultant injuries and fatalities. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau reveal that between 1996 and 2022, India recorded 3,935 stampede incidents, resulting in more than 3,000 deaths.
Relevance of the Topic:Mains: Effective Crowd Management: NDMA guidelines.
What is a Stampede?
- Stampede is an impulsive mass movement of a crowd that often disrupts the orderly movement of crowds resulting in injuries and fatalities.
- Factors leading to stampedes: Stampedes happen due to:
- High crowd density
- lack of understanding of crowd behaviour
- lack of coordination, clarity in roles & responsibilities of various stakeholders
- lack of proper planning on the part of organisers.
- Deaths in stampedes: Stampedes have high mortality rates.
- Most stampede casualties are caused by traumatic asphyxia (partial or complete cessation of respiration due to external compression of the thorax and/or upper abdomen).
- Other possible reasons include myocardial infarction (heart attack), direct crushing injury to internal organs, head injuries, and neck compression.
What is Crowd Management?
- Crowd management is defined as a systematic process of planning, organising and monitoring large gatherings. Such management should strategise to reduce and mitigate the risks in advance.
- Recognising the issue of recurring stampedes at mass gatherings, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued guidelines for crowd management.
- Objective: To assist all stakeholders, including state governments, local authorities, and organisers/administrators of events and venues of mass gatherings, in overall planning and establishing required systems for effective crowd management.
What are the NDMA guidelines for Crowd Management in India?
1. Capacity Planning:
- An effective method for counting and monitoring visitors passing through a staging point should be implemented to manage the flow.
- Ensure that there are designated physical or virtual locations that each visitor must pass through.
- Each staging point should provide adequate facilities for resting, eating, drinking water, and maintaining hygiene.
- Encourage multiple routes to enhance visitor movement and reduce congestion.
2. Crowd Control:
- During the crowd control focus should be on managing the demand-supply gap through:
- controlling crowd inflow
- regulating crowd movement at the venue
- managing crowd outflow if necessary.
3. Conducting Hazard, Risk and Vulnerability Analysis (HRVA):
- Conducting HRVA for mass gathering locations, along with pre-event scenarios can provide a foundation for preparing for all three phases of any severe incident: response, recovery, and mitigation.
- The HRVA can facilitate the creation of a decision support system that can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of rescue and relief operations.
- Identifying Threats and Causes: Planners can utilise existing information to recognise a variety of potential threats and causes of disasters at places where large crowds gather.
- Risk Assessment and Planning: After identifying these potential threats and causes, it is essential to assess their risks.
4. Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA):
- NDMA has recommended that all event organisers/planners conduct FMEA. This methodology involves rating every possible hazard on the dimensions of:
- Severity
- Frequency of Occurrence
- Difficulty of detection on a scale of 1-10 to arrive at an overall Risk Priority Number (RPN).
- Higher the severity, higher the frequency of occurrence, higher the difficulty of detection, the score assigned would be higher.
- The basic premise is that if a disaster can be foreseen, the probability of occurrence is high. For every hazard, actions are then warranted to reduce/remove the risks.
5. Develop a Course of Action:
- A course of action should be created to address each threat, cause, or gap identified by FEMA.
- After selecting potential courses of action, the planning team should identify the resources required for each option and assess them against the resources available.
Way Forward for Effective Crowd Management
- Having a right Stampede Risk-Reduction Framework, involving an inter-agency multi-disciplinary approach, for planning mass gatherings.
- Improving the physical organisation and better design of spaces for effective crowd management.
- Live surveillance of the crowd can help organisers monitor crowd density, bottlenecks, pressure buildup, and identify the source of disturbances.
- Effective Inter-agency communication among organisers, local administration officials, police and the crowd. They need to establish who will be responsible for issuing the warning and determine how the crowd will be informed.
Emergency preparedness, including the deployment of medical aid, trained personnel, and effective chaos management protocols must be a non-negotiable standard. India must ensure the safety of its citizens, whether they gather for faith, fandom, or politics.