Here the situation is very different. With so many NGOs interested in working here, there is almost a competition for NGO space! If you don’t do something, someone else will. If you don’t build the temporary shelter today, by next week someone else will. If you don’t start repairing boats now, day after there will be others who will repair boats. How does one think of long term plans in this context?

In our team we did an exercise to address this question. We asked ourselves “Let’s say all our volunteers, and all our supporters close their eyes and go off to sleep. Exactly one year later we all suddenly wake up. What would we find had happened? What would NOT have happened because we were asleep?”

The logic was that the things that would not have happened because we were asleep are exactly the areas we must focus on. Those are the areas that “need” us.

Note: This kind of questioning has its share of problems. This is not something we did or could have done at the first stage of the relief. Nor is this kind of questioning fair in a general context when very little happens overall. In the general broader context this becomes an excuse for inaction – because in reality the world will go on without us. And if everyone asks the same question, then clearly nothing much will happen as everyone is asleep! It is only in the current context of so many groups working on so many different actions at the same time that this makes some sense. Our purpose is asking this is not for inaction – but for more focused action.

So what are the things that will happen even if all of us went off to sleep?

Temporary shelters are getting completed in most places (we are ourselves doing this in several places). Boat repairs are being done by many groups. Some groups are providing nets. The Government has announced a policy subsidizing boat purchases with a loan component for the rest. The NGO coordination cells are working with the government to figure out the boat repair and replacement done quickly. Land allotment and construction of permanent houses will be completed by the Govt and many other NGOs. There are tricky questions of where the land will be provided – whether it will be in the same hamlets, or 500 m away from the coast, or much further away. There are also doubts about whether the Government and many other interested groups are trying to shift the fishermen away from the coast in order to convert the beach into tourist resorts. These questions will be answered differently if we are asleep. A number of other groups are also concerned about this and are trying to formulate a policy on this issue. Public infrastructure like schools and balwadis will be reconstructed and government teachers reappointed. The Village Health Nurse and PHCs will get back to functioning as before. As the Government’s Officer on Special Duty, Mr. C.V. Shankar put very eloquently, “The Govt has enough money for all the infrastructure rebuilding. Organizations like yours that have expertise in running programmes in education and health, must bring in this facet to complement the government rehabilitation efforts.”

Clearly many things will happen if we go off to sleep for a year! That does not mean we should go off to sleepJ. We have been and should continue working with others on ensuring a smooth transition to normal life. We should work with the people to ensure proper rehabilitation, ensure that permanent houses come up where people want it, ensure that equity is maintained, ensure that the most vulnerable (children, women, disabled, older people and the poorest) are not cheated. For example, we need to ensure that with the houses, toilets are constructed – this may mean in some places working with the people who are constructing the houses, or in other places this may mean building it ourselves. In most places we need to ensure critical gaps are filled. All this we need to work on immediately and in the medium term.

Our Immediate and Medium Term Plans:

As always our focus on all of the above will be gap-filling and working with others to ensure things happen. Ensuring transparency and participation of the village people in the rehabilitation efforts is another critical area of our work. Many dalit villages have been neglected and many non-fishing villages have also been neglected. Working with these villages will also be another immediate priority. People who have lost boats will get it back soon, but people whose fields have become saline will not be able to start farming for at least 2-3 years. How to help restore fertility to their farms is another area for both medium and long term action.