Tsunami Aid Relief Update from India
January 30, 2005
(Hyderabad, India)By Katherine Sreedhar
Director, Unitarian Universalist Holdeen India Program
I wanted to update you on how the tsunami continues to affect different groups on the ground on a daily basis and what and how the government, various donors, NGOs and the affected communities are doing—and not doing.
I can not begin this update without an observation: that some government policies actually allowed the conditions that made the disaster worse than it might otherwise have been. The Indian coastline was stripped of protective reefs and mangroves in order to build hotels and resorts, and the construction industry had immense sand mining operations which allowed the tsunami to penetrate many kilometers inland. In places where the mangrove reefs and sand dunes were untouched, there was much less damage and fewer lives lost. This reality is cause for sadness and a deep understanding that we are, as our Unitarian Universalist (UU) principles point out, part of an interdependent web of existence, which in this case has had tragic repercussions.
Assessing the Damage
The Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation Coordination (TRRC) assessed the situation in Tamil Nadu as of January 5th and 6th, and found that 10,741 people had been killed (the number continues to rise), many more women than men.
Of the 790,064 surviving people directly
affected, half of the affected communities are fisher folk; the other half
include communities dependent on the fishing industry, e.g. coolies, daily wage
laborers, vendors, shopkeepers, ice factory owners as well as inland fishermen
(mostly dalits), small farmers and agricultural laborers. The disabled and
elderly and women—widows, single women, adolescent girls, and children—are
especially traumatized and vulnerable.
In many areas, there is almost total devastation. People lost everything: assets and means of livelihood, homes, household belongings, boats, motors, nets, crops, animals, shops, entire inventories and all liquid cash. Since both individuals and groups kept all their savings in lock boxes and trunks rather than banks, all their cash and savings were swept away. Moneylenders have filled the gap by charging 20 percent interest per rupee. Above all, people—especially the fishing industries—are paralyzed by fear. The fishermen fear returning to the sea; the women fear that the sea, which was their mother, has killed their children; and consumers fear eating fish contaminated by dead bodies.
Though immediately following the tsunami, people collected their relatives’ dead bodies, after that no one would touch them. The Government then summoned the Safai Karamcharis (Scavenger community) from all over Tamil Nadu to remove the days-old decomposed bodies without providing protective gloves and masks or even food or pay. While gloves have now been provided, payment has not and the situation is still egregious.
To date the government of India has collected Rs. 2731 crore (1 crore = 10 million rupees) or $607 million, and more keeps coming for relief and rehabilitation of tsunami affected communities. The government of India has also sent aid to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Private organizations and have promised to augment the government funds.
The government has restored electricity and water, provided temporary shelter, and issued a number of Government Orders or GOs, which dictate government policy and programs and without which nothing can be done. (As an example, one Government Order specifies that each survivor who is on the government list and and has an identity card can receive 60 kgs of rice, 3 liters of kerosene, 2 dhothi's or sarees and 4000 Rupees plus a temporary ration card to purchase other basic necessities. In addition, the government gives 100,000 Rupees to anyone whose immediate relative has died and can provide a proper death certificate.)
In addition the government pledged long term aid, especially to the fishing
community, both for livelihood rehabilitation—repair and replacement of boats,
motors, nets, etc.—and for new infrastructure—houses, schools, sanitation.
The fishing community is well organized and their union, SIFFS is
powerful.
However these policies and provisions exclude or overlook many
other affected communities. These include
- women in Tamil Nadu who earn their living by collecting sea shells, crushing them to a fine powder, heating them in beach side kilns to produce limestone for construction. These women have lost this year’s harvest and also the kilns and equipment needed to return to their trade in subsequent years.
- In Tutocorin, inland fisherman who belong to Dalit communities (unlike the sea going fishermen ) had huts, boats, weirs, nets and belongings that were completely destroyed as the Tsunami penetrated 5kms into the interior. They do not have the resources to rebuild and don’t know where else they can go.
- Countless shopkeepers (predominantly Muslim) lost their entire assets—shops, investments and cash—and are now prey to local moneylenders. Muslim widows and adolescent girls are particularly at risk.
Providing Aid Where it is Most Needed
Beginning on December 22nd, over 20 local NGOs who were already based and working in the Tsunami-affected communities decided to join together to plan and implement a statewide effort under the banner of Tsunami Relief Rehabilitation Coordination (TRRC). Henri Tiphagne of Peoples Watch (a UUHIP Partner) was elected State Convenor of TRRC. The group’s objective is to coordinate both immediate and long term relief and rehabilitation efforts and to influence and monitor the Government policies, efforts and their use of funds.
They agreed to share information and ensure that information from the government was disseminated and actually reached people, and to coordinate the distribution of relief materials and the use of volunteers and professionals. They also agreed to:
- identify the villages, individuals and groups who have been excluded or overlooked, especially women and children and dalits;
- take up concrete cases of caste discrimination (eg. where dalits were not allowed in camps setup for fisher folk);
- focus on neglected areas that require special attention e.g., the care of children in camps to prevent trafficking, and counseling for survivors and victims of trauma;
- Make a commitment to support and strengthen community structures and guarantee a community voice, input, participation and representation in all stages and levels of decision making, and
- initiate and influence policy to ensure all rehabilitation is in consonance with the needs of the affected communities and to connect reconstruction to a comprehensive plan to protect the coastal areas.
People’s Watch (PW) itself has been active in the relief effort since December 26th, when staff, volunteers and students conducted a Rapid Impact Assessment in nine coastal areas of Tamil Nadu. Several colleagues from Gujarat joined to share their experiences and learning from the earthquake relief and rehabilitation efforts. A week later PW conducted a second Rapid Impact Assessment in ten districts to survey both the damage and what needed to be done. PW identified 10,000 people who had received no assistance and delivered what was required on an individual basis. The task was monumental: staff and volunteers went from wholesaler to wholesaler purchasing in bulk staple all required goods, clothes, blankets, cooking burners, vessels, and utensils. They hired lorries to deliver these goods to the Peoples Watch office and then in relay they sorted, divided and packed mountains of sugar, rice, tea, onions, garlic, potatoes, dal, masalas, chillies and other spices; soap, toothpaste, cooking vessels, clothes, etc. into ten thousand individual packets, loaded them back onto trucks, drove to the villages and put them into the hands of affected families—one by one.
In addition, PW initiated a system to photograph dead bodies and post the photographs in all police stations so people did not have to go from one station to another looking for their relatives. They also helped people to ensure that their relatives’ deaths are registered, and to file reports on missing relatives. PW plans to increase their legal aid, establish grievance committees and procedures, and establish Tsunami Rehabilitation Centers to counsel survivors.
What the Future Holds
There are a wealth of foreign donors and private volunteer organizations who are begging to “adopt a village”, give away money, and/or design and run their own programs as well as long lines of Indian NGOs writing savvy looking proposals to aid agencies. The vast majority of the aid thus far has gone primarily to Nagapatanam (the worst affected area) who now have so much food and supplies, they have hired storage facilities and have no need to purchase anything for over a year.
Meanwhile, the government has proposed public—private partnerships with aid agencies and corporations who would adopt a village for a minimum of 75 lakhs ($180,000) and build 50 houses situated at least 500 meters from the sea. The RSS (Hindu Fundamentalist Organization) and Christian Missionaries have also descended on the area promising food in return for allegiance or conversion.
It is our sense that our work should support the affected communities who are most excluded, vulnerable and at risk and who have little or no access to government or other donors. In addition, we hope to work with organizations who have been working on the ground in the coastal areas and have the capacity to use the resources creatively and effectively.
Post-script: A Report on the Activities of People’s Watch in Affected Areas
From January 3 to the present, People’s Watch (located in Tamil Nadu) has been purchasing relief materials and delivering packages to those left out of the major relief effort, those "forgotten" villages who, because of remote locations or because of discrimination, would not receive any help. Cooking vessels, salt, rice, oil, sarees, lungies, bed sheets, mat, dahl, masala powder, mustard, chilli, toothpaste, biscuits, washing soap, sugar, tea leaves, garlic, inions, potatoes and small cooking stoves were packaged and distributed to more than 6,000 families who were thrilled with the quality of the goods they received. PWTN had done a superb job identifying those who'd been left out.
On the first day, December 26, PWTN delivered 1,000 bed sheets to shivering victims of tsunami, then surveyed the extent of loss and the needs in coastal villages. It was noted that in villages that were particularly badly affected, college students had lost books, clothes, registration materials—everything. Counseling has already begun with teachers, training them to work with children. The government has promised to repair houses, but as yet have not done that job. PWTN is eager to help fishermen return to the sea, to pursue their livelihood.
A website was created for all organizations involved in relief, updated regularly, so that work could be coordinated and that few instances of duplication would be reported. Photographs were included as were lists of NGOs stationed in affected districts.
PW took advantage of the extensive system of networks that has been key to its success for more than a decade. Making connections, building trust, has always been a hallmark of their work. Area college students from several local schools volunteered to do rapid assessment survey work, detailing the scope and scale of needs, especially for women and orphans. They worked endless hours in remote villages, eager to participate, be useful, and to connect with tsunami relief efforts through PWTN. Their contribution has been invaluable. They tallied the number of lives lost, number of widows and orphans, houses lost, needs, etc. It was the first survey in Tamil Nadu.
PWTN also is working with the State, helping identify dead bodies, securing death certificates after 7 days, writing reports of the dead and missing and helping villagers in determining whether their loved ones are living or dead.
The headquarters of PWTN was transformed into a warehouse after tsunami, as volunteers packed onions, sugar, garlic, tamarind, etc. into small packages for delivery. These thousands of relief packages were distributed without any discrimination..
The work of Peoples Watch Tamil Nadu will continue in the coming weeks, as the focus on helping those affected by the Tsunami disaster proceeds.
Last updated on Friday, April 18, 2008.
