Bihar Flood Relief: UDAI (University for Development Action and Integrated Learning): Death and Despair in Relief Camps

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Death and Despair in Relief Camps

Updates from the field: 4th Sept '08

Group A visited the following places in Basantpur Block in Supaul district of Bihar on Day 2:-
1. Kataiyya
2. Kosi Barrage
3. Kusaha Dam
4. Kasoni-Musahari
5. Sripur
Apart from that Group also went to Sripur-Haripur area of Sunsari District of Nepal.
At all these places the group was accompanied by a team from Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) and one person from Help Age India.
Following are the observations made by the team:-

The damage to lives and property is on an unprecedented scale. All along the 100 km drive to Kusaha (in Saptari district in Nepal) near Birpur in Supol district in Bihar, we saw people living in relief camps or living by the side of the roads in makeshift structures (plastic sheds) or anything impromptu chosen.
Most of the camps were run by local and voluntary groups.
There is a conspicuous absence of international donor agencies as far a running camps are concerned.
At Katiyya in Basantpur block in Birpur Panchayat, we saw a large settlement of temporary huts living along the sides of the road. There were at least 35,000 to 50,000 huts in this area and an estimated 1 lakh plus population of families from Basantpur block.
The people were in a state of helplessness, anger, frustration and despair. Everyone approaching them or they approaching anyone is unspoken dialogue on and around hope. Basic needs in these kind of situation such as food and protective shelters are conspicously missing and one can easily imagine the stage of medicinal help. Image a population of one lakh and you cannot spot any body offering medicinal help.
These people are here since August 21. Apart from providing the people with plastic sheets for building their huts, no help from the district administration had reached them so far.
People are surviving on eating roasted ‘chooda’ which is supplied by some local groups. We shall not like to comment upon the quality of Chooda (called chirwa in Delhi) for there are other unmet and unattended issues.
Many people are falling ill – diahorrea, headache and fever are common complaints. No medical help is available.
Some people have died due to ailments – cases of people dying after vomiting 2-3 times.
As many as 25,000 people in Nepal and 75,000 people from Basantpur, Raghopur, Chatapur and Pratapganj have reportedly died by the river washing them away or due to drowning.
There are people in Mohanpur area who are marooned (5-7kms from Kataiyya).
People have paid anything from Rs.1000/- to Rs. 5000/- to boatmen get rescued.
The poor and the dalits have suffered the most in terms to damage to lives and property. People who had pucca houses and double storied structures were able to survive when the flooding happened, as they could live in their terraces till the boats reached to rescue them. The poor had no option but to wade through the strong water currents with the river in full spate to survive, leading to many deaths.
People are surviving by selling their jewellery and utensils in the nearby markets.
There is an air of despondency among the people which we shared with them as we left from the spot.
Similar settlements were there along the way before and into the Nepal side. However, settlements on the Nepal side looked more ‘settled’.
The hutments on the Nepal side were also running into thousands – at least 50,000 huts by conservative estimates.
These settlements were on the left side of the elevated road on which we were driving. This side is where the river originally flows, usually covering the entire left side stretch right upto the edge of the road. Due to the dam breach, the river now covers the entire right side stretch – running into hundred square kms. This is where the people (now living on the left side) originally used to live and cultivate their fields. All one can see now is miles of water.
Help being offered by the Nepalese government is better organised than on the Indian side. People are given raw rice, dal and potatoes so that they can cook their own food.
Many people from the Indian side are moving to the Nepal since they feel that better help is available on that side.
At Kataiyya people told us that still many people from Nidam chowk, Birpur and Mohanpur are trapped and after many requests by the local people still the government is not making any effort to rescue the trapped people.
At Kataiyya there are people from Bhimnagar Panchayat, Khojgama Panchayat and Baneli Patti.
There are a lot of people nearly 50,000 who have crossed the border and are now living in the Nepal relief camps as the camps there are better organised.
Cases of death in relief camps are also being reported by the people, which is deliberately being suppressed by the administartion.

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Plan of Action

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Following the desk review of the situation in Northern Bihar as also through the information available from the state and district administration, the Department of Social Work, University of Delhi has developed its plan of action. Based on our experiences of working with victims of earth quake in Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttrakhand, we have taken the initiative for long-term relief and rehabilitation project- UDAI (University for Development Action and Integrated Learning-II) for the flood affected people in Bihar with two fold objectives:

a) To contribute in relief and rehabilitation of flood affected victims on long term basis.

b) To bring back experiences of learning into the knowledge system of the university.

We have already started our intervention from August 28, 2008 and a team of seven students and one non teaching staff led by Dr. Manoj Kumar Jha, Reader, Department of Social Work has set up base camp at Saharsa. This team left with relief material worth Rupees twelve lacs collected from various quarters.

Our Vice Chancellor Prof. Deepak Pental has contributed Rupees twenty lacs to the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund and has also supported the Volunteer based UDAI project of Delhi University. The University has given us all support to make requisite intervention in affected areas. All Colleges/ Departments of Delhi University are joining us in this task.
In view of the severity and the magnitude of the problem, the department realizes that post-rescue interventions can be made at four levels and that too in collaboration with civil society organizations based in Delhi as well as in Bihar:

1. Reaching out to affected families and individuals in the worst affected districts such as Madhepura/Purnea/Araria/Saharsa

2. Helping them with necessary and scarce items such as - packed food, medicines, chlorine tablets, torches, mosquito-nets/repellant, plastic sheets (tarpaulin ones) etc.

3. To liaison and work with government and non-government agencies.

4. To focus especially on children, elderly, Dalits, Muslims and extreme backward class communities as their vulnerability is relatively high compared to other groups and communities in the same region.

WHAT WE INTEND TO DO

We intend to work at three levels- immediate relief, long term post rescue relief and long term rehabilitation. For the same our strategy is as under:

1. Identification of an area (we might focus on a cluster of villages alone) and there too identify the vulnerable locations and populations
2. Development of base and network with government and non-government agencies (for facilitating relief and rehabilitation packages and measures)
3. The impromptu relief camps need better trained staff in the initial phase and professional social workers can have a better impact on coordination
4. Taking a team of twenty students with at least three faculty members which shall liaison and network with the district administration ensuring coordination and cooperation from different government departments as well as NGOs.
5. We also realise that sanitation will be a major problem for these areas as most of the people are residing on the impromptu found cluttered spaces. We intend to liaison and work with organisation based in Delhi as well as the ones working locally.
6. Ready to eat food is more suitable for these areas as availability of fuel will be a problem.
7. We are also informed that ORS packets are not adequate for the affected areas. There is a need for bleaching powder, lime and chlorine tablets immediately for the affected districts.

Bihar Flood Relief: UDAI (University for Development Action and Integrated Learning)

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Death and Despair in Relief Camps

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Department of Social Work, Delhi University

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