The Tsunami Relief Operation

Motivation

The governments as well as a number of non-governmental agencies have been working for the rehabilitation of the displaced Tsunami victims in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands for the past four months. The initial thrust was the safe evacuation and the prevention of the outbreak of any major epidemic and providing the necessary shelter and nutrition. Most agencies have done a commendable job in this regard and a number of shelters have also been constructed in Port Blair for the displaced victims. The second phase of the relief and rehabilitation needs to be aimed at constructing hospitable dwellings for the victims in their islands and providing the basic infrastructure (electricity & running water). This is where the governments as well as most of the NGOs have drastically fallen short of target.

Fig 1: The children of the camps

My first visit was from the 1^st of May to 4^th of May 2005, during which I had an opportunity to visit a number of camps. The camps I visited were well constructed with asbestos roofs and brick walls but the true and contrasting picture emerged after taking a tour of the interiors, tasting the food and water and talking to the inhabitants. Most of the inhabitants of the shelter are from Hut Bay (Little Andaman), Campbell Bay (Nicobar) and Kachal (Nicobar). The tsunami completely washed away everything that they had and most families lost one or more persons in the tragic calamity.

Fig 2: The relief material, generally school supplies taken by me

According to the inhabitants, from January till about early March the camp had got significant attention from the authorities and also a number of non-governmental organizations were also involved in providing the basic material resources and ensuring that the quality of food and water did not go below a certain safe level. But during the following months, the situation has changed drastically and the living condition in the camp has gone down below minimum standards. The inhabitants have stopped receiving a regular supply of vegetables or milk and now the staple diet is generally a watery mixture of rice and pulses. The drinking water tank has also started stinking and is often not replenished for days at a stretch. Worse is the sanitation, overflowing public toilets and slushy stinking pathways are everywhere leading to the development of insects and germs of various forms. This is presently a health hazard as most of the kids play in the mud and some even fish out worms and eat them, as sight so moving and tragic that its has to be seen to believe.

Public memory is short and the media only holds on to a topic till it boost the channels’ popularity ratings. Its sad but in all of India’s popular news channels the total minutes devoted to the tsunami relief and rehabilitation in the first week of May can be counted on one hand.

The condition presently was so pathetic and sad that any person with a working conscience would not be able to walk away from the present dismal conditions.

Corruption has also seeped in and hardly any donated funds reach the victims. When I expressed a desire to help them, the camp in charges passionately pleaded that I should not at any cost make any monetary contribution to any governmental or non-governmental agency, the reasons for us to decide.

Execution

Fig 3: Forming a line to receive the relief material

According to the camp in charge Mr. B. Hamza, the most affected from the calamity are the children because of the lack of proper educational infrastructure and school supplies. He gave me an estimate of about 160 children (camp 1 & camp 2) in two camps between the ages of 5 and 16.

Since text books are generally supplied by the government and the public libraries, the camp in charges and I chalked out the other requirements that the children would need. We decided on school bags, pencil boxes, tiffin boxes, water bottles, crayons, maps and notebooks as the needed items. Among these I highlighted school bags, tiffin boxes and water bottles as primary need items and the rest as secondary needs.

The first task undertaken by me was to mail my friends and relatives for pledges of support. The ‘pledge’ concept was used here because time to accumulate the articles was short and I had to make a trip to the island again before the 15^th since the boat for Nicobar rehabilitating some of the people sailed on the 15^th. The high feedback of the pledges was the encouragement needed by me to single handedly organizes and plan the distribution and purchase good quality articles.

The bags were made to order from a factory, while the other articles were purchased on whole sale prices from Sadar bazaar and Mayur Vihar.

The details of the articles purchased are enclosed in the expense excel sheet. I generated about $600 and the total expenses came out to be around $1000.

The orders were in the tune of 14-28 dozens and I later realized how badly I had underestimated the weight and size of the order. So I ended up with 325 kilograms of material in eleven big bags and cartons. Hence now transportation was a major problem as I had far exceeded the amount for which Indian Airlines had earlier given me permission. But thanks to my dad being a veteran of the civil aviations himself, after pulling some string in the airline and the ministry, I was allowed to transport all the material on the same plane. The staff at Delhi airport (Mr Sahay, Mr Lalichandra, Mr Dasgupta and Mr Mukherjee among others) deserves special thanks for the help that they provided. But as the weight was so much over the limit I had to persuade my parents to come along so as to distribute the luggage among ourselves.

Fig 4: Mrs. Chandana Sengupta, my mother distributing the material to the children

On 13^th, the distribution was organized, and the turnout was much more than expected. The children were waiting in their best dresses with expectant eyes, a sight that I will never be able to forget. The moment we landed with the truck I felt that all the hard work put into the endeavor had paid off the moment a small boy P. Bala came up to me and put his arms around my neck. I am generally not very emotional but that was one of the best receptions that I have ever received from anyone.

Thanks to Hamza bhai and his helpers we were able to assemble the items into the bags within an hour, while the other teachers who had been specially called from the school in which the kids used to go, prepared a list of all the children.

A long line was formed and the bags were distributed to the children according to their age. I made my mother distribute the articles along with Hamza bhai as they were the senior most persons present.

Sadly, the news of the distribution had spread to other camps and children from camps 3 and 5 also arrived and clamored for the articles. So in the end we were short of school bags and other supplies. I had to then personally go again with Hamza bhai to the Port Blair market and purchase two dozen more articles of nearly the same type, so that no child would be disappointed. This was my first foray into this sort of relief material distribution and I hope to have learnt how it’s easy to underestimate the amount and nature of the desperation of victims.

Figure 5: Children participating in cultural activities in the evening

In the evening, we organized a number of events for the children, including drawing sessions, singing and dancing. I was amazed as how progressive these children are, some of them even more aware of the world and their country than their counterparts on the Indian mainland. The talent showed by the children can be seen in their drawings that I got back with myself.

Fig 6: One of the older children reading a petition to the government

Farewell

The farewell I received over the cup of tea and samosa made me feel so much at home, that I could not help wondering how lucky I was to be able to interact with real people, people who even at temperatures of 45 C, standing in the blazing sun would still smile and stop to chat, for whom a school bag gave more happiness than a red convertible would give to me. These are my people and my country, of the same planet that I inhabit.

There is so much that we can learn from these people who stay so far from the mainland, the most beautiful characteristic feature of the islands was the harmony with which people from all religions, all caste and all regions lived with. Inter-religion marriages are common here and friendships blossom without a mention of religious faiths or beliefs. I heard prayers to Jesus from some of the Muslim kids and shared ‘Hunuman’ madir prasad with the Christian ones. An experience that I would probably not have here in Delhi. Sometimes I want people to help them but sometimes I want them to be left alone and hope that we don’t disturb the fragile balance.

We are not what we are today because of just our effort but because we were born as who we are. One natural calamity or one unfortunate mishap is all that separates us living happily in our cozy homes from these people. When I look at these kids, I see small innocent children who are facing hardship that I never imagined at their age because of no fault of theirs.

We are all fortunate. Much more than any of us realize.

Sometimes I sit back and think that I could have been one of them if I was not as blessed as I am. I silently say my thank you prayer and let my heart and conscience take over my city bred mind.

Acknowledgements

Mr. K. Hamza, Travel Agent

An amazing resourceful person who was instrumental in this operation, starting from arranging the travel and accommodation to conducting a smooth distribution and maintaining order in the camp. The project could not have functioned without him.

Contact: 03192-240786, 9434281579, tasneemtours@yahoo.com

Mr. B. Hamza, Camp Incharge

The perfect camp incharge, caring and organized who with the help of his deputies Ms. Mary, Ms. Sujatha Paul and Ms. Haseena Bibi took complete charge of preparing the name list, organizing the children and the cultural activities. I am inspired by them and their dedication and hope all the best for them when they are resettled back to their islands.

Contact: 03192-221507

Mr. Sahay (GM, Commercial), Mr Lalichandra (Airport Manager), Mr T. Dasgupta, & Mr. A. Mukherjee (Traffic Staff), Indian Airlines (Delhi)

I am impressed by their professionalism and thankful for their help in transportation of the material. The staffs at the Delhi airport were kind and polite and all the eleven bags weighing more than 300 kgs were boarded on the aircraft without a hitch. Also special thanks to Mr. B. Biswas, for coordinating the activities. Though transportation of the material through the Calcutta airport was more difficult but Mr. B. Biswas’s personal help in the matter managed to sort out the mess.

Mr. Ram Chander and Ram Avtar

These domestic helpers working in my apartment helped me a lot with the packing and loading of the truck which took the material to the airport.

Mr. Gupta

The Gupta General Store owner who without any charge volunteered his time and money to ensure that the relief material was packed properly and gave me the most amazing prices.

Mr. Shanker Dey

An employee of Indian Airlines and a personal friend, he volunteered to go to Port Blair when the weight of the materials was becoming too much of a problem. He was extremely helpful as my inside man he ensured that all the material was properly loaded on the aircraft.

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Rustam Sengupta
949-3516379
rustams@gmail.com

Thanks for the Pledge Support for the Tsunami Relief

Thanks to all the great people who pledged and sent maney for my Tsunami operation. I am really touched by your support and hope that some day in future, I will be able to repay your kindness.

List of the Donors (updated: 07/06/2005):
1. Koel Das
2. Nilanjana Sengupta
3. Bhumika Kapadia
4. Neyshelle Fernandes
5. Pooja Bhandari & Caesar Sengupta
6. Shaheen Sikandar
7. Kaustubh Patkar
8. Damayonti Sengupta
9. Papiya Raychoudhury Sengupta
10. Ayon Das
11. Elizabeth Sengupta