[Reader-list] Update on tsunami relief

[Clifton]

Hi,

 From the 28th of December onwards a group of us have been helping out 
with relief work in the tsunami affected villages of Nagapattinam (Tamil 
Nadu) and Karaikal (Pondicherry). Of the several issues that we 
encountered the most saddening was that of caste-based discrimination in 
the relief distribution. During this time we worked with various dalit 
groups in identifying dalit villages, which the government hadn´t listed 
as tsunami-affected, and then organising for relief to be reached there. 
This has been going on for the past three weeks now and now we see 
another problem looming. That of food security. Livelihoods have been 
destroyed and it will take time for it to be restored implying that 
until such time the affected families would be in extremely vulnerable 
situations. It is in this context that we are trying to get the Right To 
Food campaign people to immediately intervene. There is a small write-up 
that we have put together that gives a sense of possible ways ahead.

There are other notes that we have put together on dalit discrimination 
that we could circulate if anyone is interested.

Regards
Clifton, Arvind, Revathi, Niruj, Nitin, Deepu and Uvaraj


  --------------------


  Relief and rehabilitation of tsunami-affected persons in Tamil Nadu
  and Pondicherry


    *

      Revathi, Niruj, Deepu and Clifton



With the government closing down relief and moving on to rehabilitation 
despite overflowing godowns, an upbeat media flashing pictures of fancy 
schemes by NGOs, as most volunteers to the disaster zone have packed 
their bags and left, one reality of the politics of rehabilitation has 
come out glaringly. Even as the Meenavar community is coping with its 
losses and trauma and getting on with the rehabilitation process the 
left outs, facing starvation, in the relief network are taking to 
streets demanding food relief. Mostly dalits, these marginalized 
agricultural labourers and unorganised labourers, have failed to attract 
any attention from the administration. Sadly this issue is yet to find 
media coverage, possibly because hunger is not on par with deaths. This 
may sound rather cynical but people in several villages are beginning to 
believe that their surviving the tsunami is going against them now. The 
governments have turned away from them while only a handful of NGOs 
consider this issue serious enough to intervene effectively.

The developments over the past two weeks where people affected by the 
tsunami in Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu) and Karaikal (Pondicherry) 
districts have taken to the streets highlighting the need for food 
relief is indicative of the serious problem of food scarcity that is 
spreading in the affected coastal villages. This needs to be addressed 
immediately and measures preventing any kind of food insecurity need to 
be begun before it gets too late.


The discourse on Right to Food has progressed considerably owing of 
positive interventions by the Supreme Court that has forced the state 
governments to ensure that people have multiple ways of ensuring food. 
Yet every year there are reports of starvation deaths and suicides owing 
to lack of access to food grains. It is in this reality that one needs 
to locate the present debate on food security in the villages that have 
affected by the tsunami. Here we are faced with a situation where 
livelihoods have been entirely obliterated and people are forced to rely 
on the state for access to food grains and to some extent on NGOs and 
the goodness of civil society. This makes for a situation where things 
could easily get out of hand and the protests and dharnas confirm these 
doubts. The issue of food security in the times of a disaster needs to 
be looked at very critically in the context of the policies and 
practices of the TN and Pondicherry governments.


That relief is the sole access to food grains for the affected 
populations makes the delivery of relief a very important task. Yet it 
is this critical task that is fraught with serious problems that is 
leading to food scarcity.


    *

      The major problem that can be identified is the limited scope of
      the “affected person” definition by the state. While the initial
      approach was based on the innumerable lives lost and property
      damaged it was later rectified to a certain extent with the
      recognition of petty traders, farmers, landless agricultural
      labourers, etc as livelihood affected persons. The definition of
      the affected people still has not been given a rational approach
      and there is a lot of confusion of who is primarily affected and
      secondarily affected and not affected. Even with the identified
      categories this recognition, however, has not translated into an
      effective mitigation of the losses that have been suffered. It has
      also not meant that these communities have been targeted with
      adequate relief. In fact, presently, it is these communities,
      especially the landless agricultural labourers who are facing a
      serious food scarcity. In many villages people who have totally
      lost their livelihood told us that the government officials told
      them that they are not entitled for relief since they were not
      affected.


    *

      There are various reasons that explain this. One is that the
      government has decided on a priority list where the fisherpeople
      are at the top and the landless somewhere at the bottom. Thus
      their interests are not taken care despite the fact that they are
      as vulnerable as the rest if not more. In Karaikal the
      fisherpeople have received 60 kgs of rice while the landless
      agricultural labourers have received only 5 kgs. This is
      inexplicable since both categories of people have lost their
      livelihoods to the tsunami, the fisherman having lost his boat /
      nets and thus the ability to fish while the landless agricultural
      labourer has lost his/her ability to get work on lands since these
      were salinated. This differential treatment has resulted in the
      landless, mostly dalits, facing serious food crisis.


    *

      The distribution of relief by the non-government agencies also
      suffer from this problem of having sidelined the other categories,
      except for those whose mandate is to work with these groups. In
      Nagapattinam the distribution of relief was coordinated by the NGO
      Coordination Centre, which focused entirely on fishing villages
      and at that on the Meenavar community. There was no attempt made
      to assess the losses and needs in the villages where agricultural
      lands had been salinated.


    *

      The distribution of relief has also been coloured by caste biases.
      In fishing villages relief has been prevented from reaching dalit
      groups and this is a well-documented fact. This has further
      rendered the dalits and adivasis more vulnerable than they already
      are. As already stated the media has highlighted this issue rather
      extensively yet the response of the government has been
      disappointing. One of the reasons for this happening is that the
      local administration has viewed the affected persons as a
      “community” without being sensitive to the fact that these are
      homogenous and there exist serious caste-cased divisions where the
      upper castes obviously dominate. The other reason is of the
      ineffective monitoring of the reach of relief. Where the local
      administration has recognized dalits as affected it has not
      effectively monitored the process to ensure that they receive relief.


    *

      The inexplicable stoppage of relief at a preliminary stage and
      jumping into so-called rehabilitation process can also be blamed
      for this food scarcity. Even before all categories of affected
      people were properly “identified” relief was stopped and thus
      those “identified” or rather accepted as affected the relief was
      stopped. Rehabilitation has been jumped into without relief being
      done properly. One reason for this being the incorrect assessment
      of the impact of the tsunami. Unlike the Bhuj earthquake in
      Gujarat, the tsunami here has almost entirely obliterated the
      livelihoods of lakhs of people. Thus, unless the livelihoods are
      restored there is no way possible for the affected people to fend
      for themselves. This is a wrong decision since it views relief and
      rehabilitation at two mutually exclusive processes. Instead the
      government should view these as parallel processes where the
      relief part ends when rehabilitation is complete. Relief has to be
      continued till rehabilitation is complete not stopped when the
      process of restoring livelihoods has just begun. For the
      fisher-people where there is some semblance of rehabilitation
      processes set in motion too this holds true and relief has to be
      ensured till they are back in the sea. In the case of farmers and
      landless labourers for whom there is no rehabilitation plan or
      process initiated, the stoppage of relief is inexplicable.


    *

      State relief has been a one-off exercise where inadequate cash and
      food grains were given and people expected to fend for themselves
      thereafter even though they are not in a situation to do so. While
      livelihoods have not been restored even for the Meenavar community
      and the process looking much more distant for the farmers and
      agricultural labourers the fact that the state has not come up so
      far with any extension of relief or a second round of food grain
      supply indicates a lack of application of mind to the relief to
      rehabilitation transition.


    *

      Added to this is the apathy of the district authorities who
      ‘prioritize’ and counterpose the interests of the affected people
      who have lost their kith and kin and people who had nothing to
      lose in the first place and who have lost their one source to live
      with dignity their livelihood and are taking to the roads out of
      sheer hunger.


The situation as such now is one where different sets of people are at 
various stages of food insecurity. Some do not have food for the next 
meal while others will run out of their food grain stock in a few days 
or weeks time. Post that there is no guarantee of access especially with 
livelihood restoration slated to take at least 3-6 months for 
fisherpeople and longer than that for the agrarian communities.



      Immediate and next steps…



  /Enumeration and immediate compensation/

The immediate need is for several policy decisions on issues that have 
some to the fore yet have not been given adequate attention by the 
government.


    *

      Categories of affected people

The enumeration of the total populations affected by the tsunami is a 
necessary task without which it would be difficult to ensure their food 
security. The various categories of occupations that they are engaged 
in, also needs to be enumerated. This serves several purposes. Firstly 
towards understanding the impact on them and secondly aid in framing any 
kind of relief and rehabilitation policy for them


    *

      Compensation for loss of livelihood

It is imperative that the government works out a compensation package 
for those not catered to yet. This would necessarily imply compensation 
for loss of livestock as well. This could be worked out in such fashion 
so as to enable the families to purchase the livestock lost. It is also 
imperative that the government immediately announces a compensation 
package for the tillers where agricultural lands have been salinated. 
The point to note here is that the compensation must be announced in the 
names of the tillers i.e. to the owner where s/he is the tiller or to 
the sharecropper / tenant where s/he is the tiller.


    *

      Ex-gratia

The government must immediately announce and disburse an ex-gratia 
amount for the landless agricultural labourers working on lands that 
have been salinated.

    *

      Pensions

Pensions for destitude women, single mothers, elders, disabled, widows, 
etc must be immediately announced and disbursed.


    Relief

Simultaneous with the above process must be the immediate disbursal of 
foodgrain relief to the affected populations. This must be for all the 
categories of affected people including those who have been ignored thus 
far.


    *

      The first step in this process is the distribution of relief cards
      to all affected families. This must be done in consultations and
      with the active participation of the panchayats, CBOs and NGOs.
      Care must be taken to see that the caste biases do not mar this
      process, which would then result in the marginalization of the
      already marginalized sections of society.


    *

      This must be followed by an immediate round of distribution of
      foodgrain relief. It must be ensured that the relief that is
      distributed consists not only of cereals, pulses and oil but also
      of vegetables and fruits. While the foodgrains should be
      distributed through the PDS infrastructure, the vegetables and
      fruits could be supplied through the village Self Help Groups
      (SHGs) at subsidized rates. The government could provide loans to
      the SHGs to facilitate this thereby also providing some alternate
      livelihood option to few of the affected people.


    *

      The balwadis / anganwadis must be immediately restarted where they
      are yet to be so and this structure must be used for ensuring the
      nutrition of not only children but also of destitude women,
      pregnant women, disabled people, etc. The Mid-day meal scheme
      needs to be extended to provide nutritious meals three times a day
      to these vulnerable sections of society.


This form of relief must be continued until such time where the affected 
families obtain the capacity and the opportunity to resume normal 
livelihood activities.


  /Interim livelihood rehabilitation/

Relief is only a temporary exercise but necessary until livelihood 
activities are resumed and to this extent the government must take 
several steps to ensure that the livelihood activities are resumed as 
soon as possible.


    *

      Announcement of special Food / Cash – for – work (FCW) scheme

The government must declare the entire Nagapattinam and Karaikal 
districts as tsunami affected since the economic ramifications of the 
tsunami is far beyond just the immediately affected coastal villages and 
announce for immediate FCW schemes wherever demanded. To this extent the 
government must pass immediate orders for the activation of FCW schemes 
in the affected villages and the neighbouring villages as well. The 
government must envisage, with the active participation of the people, 
schemes for dalit and adivasi families. For instance, the work could be 
establishment of cooperatives for brick kilns, milk diaries, etc. Thus 
low-rate loans for initial capital could be provided for establishment 
of such ventures. People could be trained in the initial phase receiving 
the food/cash as per the scheme until they are capable of running these 
ventures independently.


    *

      As pointed above the SHGs could be innovatively used in relief
      distribution i.e. vegetables and fruits at subsidized rates.


    *

      The ordinary FCW schemes must be run for a minimum period of 15
      days a month.


    Permanent rehabilitation

The government in its orders has till now adopted a property-owner 
centric policy in addressing livelihood issues through rehabilitation 
packages and only recognized those who own boats and go out to sea as 
well as those who own and operate small shops in the villages. In terms 
of the farming community that owns the agricultural lands that were 
inundated by sea waters, there are currently surveys being carried out 
by the revenue departments of various districts to assess the extent of 
inundation and the degree of salination. There have been indications 
from the government that a clear policy will be formulated once the 
situation is properly assessed.


Be that as it may, it is undeniable that in any formulation of 
rehabilitation packages for livelihoods the people of the fishing and 
farming communities that do not own boats, nets or lands generally 
remain ignored.


Does rehabilitation mean that one restores to the previous level all 
those who have lost resources and leave those who were socially and 
economically disadvantaged where they were, i.e. at the bottom of the 
hierarchy? Or does the policy try and address questions of 
socio-economic marginalization? The present approach being 
property-owner centric, the focus invariably has been towards restoring 
the communities to pre-tsunami status. This necessarily implies that the 
communities, especially Dalit, with no property ownership, will continue 
to be manual labourers with no change in the economic status. Should one 
resign to saying that this is not the time for ‘social change’? Or 
should the intention of the rehabilitation policy be to address the 
social and economic discrimination of Dalits and think of creating 
resources for those who never owned any property?


If one merely tried restoring the status quo, would there be a return to 
status quo or would the hierarchical relationship be more skewed with 
those who don’t own resources being even more economically marginalized? 
How would this affect the relationship between those with resources and 
those without in a post-tsunami rehabilitation scenario?


These are all complex questions meriting a detailed analysis and a clear 
articulation of policy. What is of grave concern is that these questions 
of livelihoods of those who are also affected by the tsunami, and do 
also form a part of the fishing community, has not yet been mentioned in 
any governmental policy. What is clear is that those who own no property 
and are merely dependent on those who do own property merit no attention 
in rehabilitation efforts.


It is time for the government to shed its inertia and adopt a pro-poor 
policy in the tsunami-affected villages. This could include:


    *

      Land – based rehabilitation of landless agricultural labourers

The government must declare a policy of providing agricultural land to 
landless dalits and adivasi agricultural labourers. There already exists 
a scheme (TADHCO) whereby the government purchases 1 acre of land for 
dalit agricultural labourers. It is imperative that the scheme is made 
compulsory for all affected villages and a minimum acreage stipulated 
for purchase for such disbursal.


    *

      Training and creation of employment opportunities for dalits and
      adivasis

The government must also envisage and propose skill-training 
opportunities for dalits and adivasis. This has o be done in 
consultation with the communities.


    *

      Creation of assets, which can be used to generate livelihood
      options such as livestock, etc.


*Conclusion:*

In its order dated 2^nd May 2003, in the matter of People’s Union for 
Civil Liberties v Union of India (WP (Civil) No. 196 of 2001), the 
Supreme Court has clearly articulated the right to food and its 
importance in the case of poor families. The Court further added that, 
“…Their misfortune becomes further grave during times of famines and 
drought…” Now in the villages affected by the tsunami one is faced with 
tragedy that similarly increases the misfortune of the poor and 
marginalized sections of society. In fact the tsunami and the consequent 
relief and rehabilitation policies of the government has not only 
exposed the poor and marginalized sections of society to such food 
scarcity but also introduced the same to the fisherpeople. This 
situation demands that the government adopt an approach whereby the food 
security of the affected people is ensured.


The processes and suggestions elaborated above are just one small step 
in indicating a comprehensive approach that could be adopted by the 
government in dealing with this situation effectively.