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Kalpana's report on visit to Nagai and Cuddalore |
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Dear friends,
I have just returned from a one week visit to the
relief coordination centres and some of the affected villages in Killai and
Panchankuppam (Cuddalore) and Thirukadayur and Nagai. Here are some of my
observations on the situation and what needs to be immediately done by
us:
- In all the villages I visited, rumours that the
Tsunami will strike again on January 26th, on Pongal day, on Ammavasai, on
Pournami etc have been circulating and people are living in abject terror of
another impending assault from the sea. There is an urgent and immediate need
for some form of science communication that addresses this fear by explaining
what caused the Tsunami and asserting that this is a one-off and
extremely rare occurence, not something that will recur on a monthly
basis. Especially we need to explain that the Tsunami has nothing to do
with the waxing and waning of the moon. In fact, the women
from Muzukathurai village in the Killai camp asked me why the water was
black in colour and why it had a bad smell. "Was it diesel that came when the
earth broke and the water rose?" one woman wanted to know. In Panchankuppam
camp, a street play on the Tsunami has been developed and enacted in some
villages. This needs to be widely replicated in the other areas as
well.
Another
reason why this task is so urgent is because fishing communites are expressing a
need to be relocated further away from the sea, in safer territory on account of
the anticipation of another Tsunami. This fear could be manipulated by the
government and the tourism industry which seeks to usurp the shore from the
fishing community and construct five star hotels instead.
- There is a tremendous need for volunteers,
especially women volunteers, to provide some form of psychosocial
support to women and children in the affected villages. Wherever I
visited, we held discussions with women in groups and found that women were
extremely eager to narrate the story of how they escaped the Tsunami, how
long they ran, who helped them when they stumbled and fell, how they reunited
with their children and family etc. It was amazing to hear that heavily
pregnant women have run for 3 kilometres carrying their older children. We
need to listen to the stories of the survivors with empathy and support.
Narrating their escape from death to sympathetic listeners is an important
stategy of coping with the trauma. Sometimes women narrated their experience
with a touch of humour as well. Several women spoke of how they deserved a
trophy for their 'marathon' and for being 'Olympic runners'. One woman spoke
of how she believed her mother-in-law had died and had just finished the
'opari' for her when she showed up. She had been thrown by the force of the
water on a coconut tree and had stayed on the tree
long after the water had receded !
In addition to the uncertainty that people are facing
about their future, there is a tremendous sense of betrayal about the
sea. People everywhere spoke of how the fishing nets and boats became
death traps for many of those fleeing the waves. A large number of bodies were
found entangled in nets and thrown against boats. "Engalukku soru potta valaiye
sava koduthuruchi. Enga kadalamma engala pazi vangitta' were frequently heard
laments. There is also a strongly articulated sense of shame that people who
were self-reliant have been reduced to the status of dependents on others'
charity.
AIDWA women have been talking to individual women survivors. A team of
women from Pondicherry Science Forum supported SHGs have been providing this
support cum counselling in Panchankuppam and Reddiarpettai camps. But we need
more women volunteers for this task. The existing DYFI, Science Forum and AIDWA
volunteers have their hands full with estimating the extent of damage and
loss, conducting surveys, distributing relief etc.
- We also need volunteers to help organize
games for children and talk to them both in groups and as
individuals. Everywhere women report that small children wake up in the night
and scream "the sea is coming, the sea is coming, run, run". Volunteers
visiting from Chennai and Bangalore have been organizing games in the evening
- running race, skipping competition, drawing and similar activities. Right
now, a team of women volunteers of an NGO that works with special children,
children with disabilities and child survivors of trauma and abuse, are
visiting the Pondicherry Science Forum camp in Karaikal. They say that their
methodology involves exercises and games that help children express trauma and
overcome their fears. Can we get in touch with them to bring out a small
booklet maybe on this technique?
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- While villages that have lost lives have won a
great deal of attention, those that have not lost lives have been
neglected. For example, in Koozaiyur village near Killai, houses were
not damaged and lives were not lost. However, all boats have been destroyed
and people were starving. People had open wounds even 10 days after the
Tsunami. Our relief coordination center in Killai was the first to have
contacted the village, rushed food and supplies and provided first aid.
Agricultural and non-fishing villages also complain of
neglect when compared to fishing villages. Women of Vepancheri village near
Tharangampadi in Nagai district complain that all vans and trucks have been
directed to Thazampettai - the adjacent fishing village "We used to cultivate
verkadalai. Sea water has soaked into our land. We wont be able to farm for a
very long time. Fishermen can go back to the sea if you give them boats and
nets. What about us? How can we reclaim our land"?. Dalit women of Vepancheri
also reported discrimination and verbal insults from the fisher communities
who objected to eating together in the camps.
Therefore, we need to think of an appropriate intervention
strategy in farm land that has become saline and we need to press the government
to offer long term solutions to these people as well.
I
also strongly feel that we should organize health and education intervention
programmes similar to Makkal Palli Iyakkam and Arogya Iyakkam in the fishing
villages in which our relief coordination centres have been working as a long
term strategy for consolidating our base in these villages. A large number of
families in the fishing areas have 4-5 children each. Young children were
extremely malnourished and women were anaemic and malnourished as well. We need
to strengthen our women's empowerment interventions in these villages. This is
the critical intervention that will distinguish our efforts from other agencies
that will distribute relief for the first two - three months and then
disappear.
Thank you for reading this report. My regards to
all,
Kalpana
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