Not just Iran’s pain

In a deeply fissured world, divided into groupings of every kind — political, economic and military — the one occurrence that unites nations and people is devastation. The earthquake that struck Iran last week, flattening the ancient city of Bam and causing deaths in the tens of thousands, saw the world on full alert, making every effort to reach out to help assuage Iran’s grief and pain in its hour of despair. There are at the moment over 22 international search and rescue teams out there and the US, which had categorised Iran as a part of its axis of evil, has sent its personnel to lend a hand in the salvage operations.

This, of course, is as it should be because tragedy, pain and the utter sense of loss over the death of loved ones are universal experiences and touch a universal chord. So when Ayotollah Ali Khamenei tells the people of Bam, “We share your sorrow, those lost are our children”, he could as well be speaking on behalf of all of us. The Bam earthquake — with a toll that is now estimated to exceed 30,000 — is now designated as the worst that has visited the world in the last decade. As the site of the second worst — the Gujarat earthquake is estimated to have claimed 19,700 lives — India generally, and Gujarat specifically, has a great deal to offer in terms of insights on handling a disaster of such magnitude.

Managing the consequences of an earthquake has three distinct phases. The first, of course, is the immediate rescue operations, followed almost immediately by the relief measures that the devastated community would require. While both these phases have their own complications, by far the most complex aspect is rehabilitation — both in the immediate term and the long term. This would entail not just interventions like timely surgery, resettlement, psychological support,

attention to vulnerable groups like orphaned children, but the reconstruction of quake-proof homes. Iran would need the attention and support of the world, long after the searing images of bundled corpses and crying children fade away.