Jayachandran-My friends from Nagapattanam after the Tsunami

Jayachandran K
Jan 14th to 21st 2005

I have now spent almost 10 days at the Tsunami affected places. I have proved myself wrong in thinking that if all funds from various organizations and the government reached the affected people it would be sufficient in rebuilding their lives. The scale of devastation is unimaginable. My first visit from 28th Dec was to the relief camps, which only gave me a chance to hear the horror stories of the victims. During my second visit from 15th Jan I was at Akkraipettai, Keechankuppam the most affected parts in Tamilnadu. I work with a NGO called SUYAM (Hindi equivalent to SWAYAM). Suyam with its limited resource I should say that they are making a difference at these place mentioned.

These are few of the activities being carried out by SUYAM:

>Providing food for more than 500 people daily (remember people still haven’t got neither their livelihood nor their homes)
> Getting the schools back to shape so that they can house children during day time and avoid their continued trauma at the relief camps. There are more than half a dozen schools that we are reaching to.
> Involving the local volunteers in cleaning up the place in the wake of epidemics (recently 2 deaths reported in the affected area in the district due to chicken pox)
> Reaching out to the injured in the hospitals and trying to find a way incase they need treatment outside with specialists.
>Organizing the distribution of relief materials that reach us from other NGOs and corporate bodies.
We also have other long-term plans.

Here more than telling you what we are doing at the site I thought of sharing few of my experience.

AKKARAIPETTAI was the word I first heard from NDTV on a news report by Barkha Dutt on 26th Dec. After which this place has been flashed on numerous dailies and talked over on various channels but I wonder still why this place hasn’t seen a private entity to help building their temporary shelters. May be this is because this place has close to 2000 families and on an average each family has 5-8 members. Government is building temprorary shelter but people say it is far from their village and it would be difficult for their rehabilitation in their village. There are other places like Samathanpettai and Kameshwaram in the same area getting help from Mata Amritamayi & Lucas TVS in building temporary shelters, I felt someone needs to put Akkaraipettai and Keechankuppam in the radar for help. They need more and what has been done is a very little percentage of what can be done.

This place Akkaraipettai that I am talking about had once 1800 boats or more. On an average a boat costs somewhere in between 15 to 25 lacks. Why talk of the boats alone, each of the boats had nets at least a couple or more (the nets costs from Rs.50000 to Rs.150000). This is supposedly the largest fishing hamlet in Tamilnadu. If each boat employs on an average 8 people (5 fisherman + people who sell these fish in the markets, other dependant) we are talking about close to 80000 people (8*6*1800 =people employed*average members in a family*number of boats) dependant on fishing in this village alone. It is said that only 3 of the 1800 boats were in a usable state after the Tsunami had hit.

A Fisherman’s life I realized was in general a tough one. We(volunteers and the local fishermen) would have a chat in between work or during our meal about how they would venture into the sea and talk of different things from their love life to their little fans club for various cine artists. The local volunteers working with us are of average age of 25.

On my first visit I would wonder how big all these fishermen families were!! A 7-9 member family is something that is common. As I talked I realized they could never be sure of the bread earner when he ventured into the sea. There were many such cases I personally encountered where the children would take up the fishing job when his father is dead or unable to go to the sea. I can remember this one case of Arulmani. He used to study well, top his class till fifth standard. He was even part of the Arivoli Iyakkam (A movement in Tamilnadu to spread the importance of education in rural places). As his father fell ill he and his brother had to discontinue their study to take up fishing. Now he is just 8th standard pass out and his brother has studied till 9th.

It was even more astonishing to hear about how they would venture into the sea and how much of investment was required. On an average to go into the sea for 4 days they had to spend somewhere close to Rs.17000 for diesel, Ice for storage and food materials for 6 members. They carry with them around 600 liters of diesel with them for 4 days. And when they come back with the catch 70% of the catch goes to the owner of the boat who spends the 17000 Rupees that I mentioned and 30% is shared among the 6 people who go into the sea. When the catch is little, they are paid Rs.50 for 4 days. The catch can be somewhere between Rs.2000 to Rs.2 lack.
On an average they come back with somewhere between Rs.20000 and Rs.30000 catch. So imagine these are people who always have money with them either spending on themselves or on their business.

There are other stories of brave young people who have survived and saved other lives. Bhaskar was one such guy who survived the Tsunami clinging to a palm tree. It was about 9 O’clock in the morning when he was talking to his friend that Tsuanmi had hit his village. He saw big boats being thrown into the wind.He would say it was like some thousand trucks rushing towards him. He saw few small kids who were playing cricket struggling to run. He just managed to catch two of the kids that the waves hit him. The two of the children clung to him and he said the waves were like a big roller taking everything on its way. He would then say that because of those two kids he survived as both of them caught him on front and dorsal side and took the hit when they rolled over with the wave. Bhaskar just managed to catch a palm tree that he found that he already lost one of the kids. As Bhaskar felt the body weight of the other kid clinging on to him from behind he tried to reach him and get him on the tree. By then the kid fell down and his body was taken by the wave that was retreating. As the waved retreated Bhaskar says he was almost over the half the palm trees height. After this frightening incident he still managed to save another guy who was badly injured.

Bhaskar says,” It is during this time of the year that they have a good season for fishing. He says they would eat more on the sea (on the boat) than on the land, may be because they cook their food themselves on the sea.” On 21stJan as Nagappattam weather was pleasant cloudy and windy he would say “normally it would be humid and there would be no wind this part of the year. All his friends and many in the village would go to the beach and sleep during the nights” he smiles and then says” don’t know if we can again do what we used to do at the beach”.

I can’t stop mentioning here a sarcastic comment from a fisherman folk who himself had his property damaged. He said, “ If the Tsunami had to hit another couple of times there would be little or no parity between the rich and poor along the coastline”

Among the tragic stories we also tend to hear a couple of miracles. During a visit to the Tanjore Government Hospital we came across girl child "Jeevika". She is going to kindergarten school now. She was almost one girl who was making the entire ward of tsunami hit patients laugh and enjoy with her songs and dance. While she was singing and dancing for our camera little did we know that she was with her father playing on the beach sand when the Tsunami had hit. Her father is on a near-by bed taking treatment for his badly injured leg and stomach. He narrates how after the Tsunami wave he rescued his child lying on a thorn bush in an unconscious state. She was taken to Nagapattanam Government Hospital and the doctors warned that she would die soon. Jeevika giving her parents a torrid time worse than the tsunami lay unconscious for 5 days. Then her condition improved. Now she is hale and healthy. She is the only happiness to the parents who have lost everything. They still thank god for giving them back their JEEVIKA.(I now think isn’t the name well suited to the child-"a child full of life"-jeevika)

All these people are real superheroes and most of them are now volunteering to work for us. Most of these young men who are in the relief work have their own tragic story to tell. They have lost their boats, their house and few their loved ones and still they are ready to work to get their village back as normal.

There are people who are trying to reach out to these nice brave people. Help in kind, monetary funds and in person is reaching Suyam from far and wide of India and the world. But to these people who have lost everything as one of them says they have been pushed 50 years behind, what has reached them is very little. These people are so warm even at this juncture. As I wait for the train to Chennai Bhaskar hands over to me a Cadbury chocolate bar. He is expecting things to change through all of us.