We are not visiting Chargheri this week as we had distributed stuff for 2 weeks last time. We plan to visit the next weekend to distribute food and medicines for the next fortnight. In the intervening time we will also assess if we can manage to provide a few more of the essential requirements. Polythene sheets were one of these. Some of the Chargheri people requested for these sheets when we enquired about any other essential requirements at the time of last distribution.
We had noticed that some of the common medicines were already in short supply and needed to be replenished. The common ailments of adults and children were also noted down. Stocks need to be maintained of medicines for those ailments. If things go as per plan, we may also have a kind doctor joining us on these Chargheri visits in the coming weeks to run a 'proper' medical camp.
Khelaghar had arranged for useful medicines in the first few weeks. We are happy to learn that we now have commitments of support stocks for medicines as well. We may get some boxes of such medicines from our generous supporters for the next trip.
Friday, July 31, 2009
Sunday, July 26, 2009
4th visit in Pix and Videos: part 2
Chargheri Trip 4 dated 25-07-2009, Part 2 of 2:
[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]
...continued from part 1
13_rice_bags@dist_pt
The rice bags are stacked at distribution point, ready to be served to the people queuing up
The rice bags are stacked at distribution point, ready to be served to the people queuing up
14_books_for_good_students
The local volunteers request us to explore providing books & school dresses to the better students, as the village school is re-opening. This will need further discussion. Is it a primary need under the prevailing conditions? How many students are in a position to attend school within next few months?
17_other_group_and_routing_people
This video shows the distribution point just ahead of the start of distribution. The other corporate group to arrive on the same day is seen here with our group, merging their distribution of food material into our card based issue system.
In the 2nd part of this video, the routing of queue and after distribution point is also indicated.
The card we used
This picture shows the format of the card we used (the script is in Bangla). Notice the dates indicated, which we tick during the check process. The card number (unique) and name are identifiers used during distribution. As this week’s distribution was for 2 weeks, we were ticking off 2 consecutive dates (25th July & 1st August).
18_Kaustuv_explaining_card_check
Kaustuv briefs the group on the check system for the cards ahead of the issue
19_implementing_dist_thru_cards
The process of issue of rice through the cards, including the checking, is shown in this video.
Distribution in progress
The distribution starts off slowly and then picks up pace.
The queue kept building up…
...faster than we could clear it. To complete our work before dusk, we had to open up a 2nd distribution point at the closing stages.
Lady queueing up with her card ready
We traversed the length of the queue in order to clarify to people that issue will be made against cards (which they seemed to be aware of), that they can queue up irrespective of serial numbers, that we would issue rice for 2 weeks (we will not come next week), that they need not come and stand in the sun from 10 am on the visit days as we are never going to arrive that early. A megaphone will do just fine next time for the announcement purpose!
We also told people that they should not change head count on the cards of their own even if they think the headcount needs redressal (they would not get more than what our register shows in any case). Unauthorised correction was observed in a few cards. They need to register their issue with the volunteers for address during the next time.
With more time, we expect to get in closer touch with the people, but coming from so far for an afternoon there can be only so much progress per week! This week we were already controlling the distribution entirely by ourselves, with the volunteers mainly controlling the crowd.
20_rice_filling_in_bags
Rice is getting filled into the bags of recipients during distribution
21_interview
Interviewing a local old woman
22_Saptarshi_checking_list
Saptarshi is seen here doing the card checking duties….
23_exchanging_duties
…and Saptarshi is equally adept at distributing rice at lightning speed!! He does that in his very first visit. What a guy to have in your team!
As I said, he was good at it.
Another picture of Saptarshi distributing rice.
Bag filling
Gopal and Trinath helped with the bags (need strong arms for that - some of those were filled with 7-8 kgs of rice for the entire family). Amar was checking the cards with Kaustuv and returning to the holders.
24_medicap_camp_Dipankar_tablets
Dipankar issues tablets, strips and tonics for common ailments for common ailments
25_Dipankar_injection_part1
He can also push a dose of tetvac to people having wounds and injuries (see next video)…
26_Dipankar_injection_part2
…and the recipient is seen here complaining that he did not have any pain!
I was there too
During the latter stages I was with Dipankar in the medical camp (makeshift – what else). 94 people attended the camp on the 4th visit.
Snapshot of the medical register
I tried to note down the common problems, and also the medicines that were not in stock. There were no serious problems mentioned by anyone this time. The above snapshot shows the listing of missing medicines, as well as common ailments (in my own inimitable Bengali handwriting, of course).
Many of the adults were complaining of stomach related problems. The children were mainly affected by stomach issues as well as cough / cold / fever. I asked about the water quality, but they appeared to be satisfied with the water they get from the unaffected tubewell.
27_returning_to_boat_in_downpour
When the skies opened up, we were almost through with the rice distribution. The medical camp had already served 94 people. The common ailments were noted down, and the medical stock requirements were also noted. We hope to have a doctor accompanying us sometime very soon.
Thus ended our 4th trip to Chargheri. It was low tide again, and we waded back to the mud and the waters to go back to our boat. We were thoroughly drenched by the end of it. But we felt that this visit gave us additional confidence. Firstly that 2 weeks stuff CAN be distributed in one afternoon, and that the people are generally happy (you can’t please everyone, but we truly did not hear any serious complaints) with the process we have adopted.
We could distribute to almost all the recipients (686+ out of 721 families) in our presence. Minor grievances (like head counts in families) were also noted and can be addressed before next visit.
We are planning to improve the cards. We had issued plain papers, and some of them may already have been destroyed as the people returned home in today’s downpour. Reissuing the piece of paper is not much of a problem but repeated distribution can be a problem, leading to grievances. More on that later.
Adieu to Chargheri from the bed of River Garal
4th visit in pix & videos - PART 1
Chargheri Trip 4 dated 25-07-2009, Part 1 of 2:
[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]
Explaining HSI to Saptarshi
The history of Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) till date is explained to Saptarshi
01 hightide water level outside dykes
This sight is common to almost all areas of Sunderbans during the high tide. The inhabited land inside is lower than the high tide level and protected by earthen dykes. Hundreds of kilometres of these dykes were breached by furious Aila on 25th May 2009.
02 Boat enters Changheri through breached dyke
Our boat leaves Garal River and enters Chargheri territory, into an area which used to be a farmland.
03 Area lost to river
In this video, the boat enters an estuarine part of the village that used to be a farmland before Aila happened. Now this is an extension of the river. The new dyke is getting built a few hundred metres inside the old damaged dyke.
This entry of boat through dyke and straight sailing to the distribution area is possible only during high tide. The high tide was already receding when we reached. The boat had to be unloaded quickly and navigated to deeper waters of Garal to ensure we did not get stranded till the next high tide.
04 broken dykes of Chargheri
This video shows the remnants of the old dyke of Chargheri on Garal river. It was destroyed by Aila.
05 Another video of the area lost to river
This is another video where Kaustuv shows to Saptarshi the areas outside the new dyke, of Chargheri, all of which was farmland. Saptarshi is our friend from IBM. He was visiting first time.
06 Pumps operating on new dyke
This video shows the land inside dykes being emptied by pumps operating on them. This is done with the purpose of emptying accumulated water from farmland inside the dyke. It is the first step towards getting the land back to cultivability.
This is the first step towards of landmark of desalination. Pumping is being done by the dyke repairing contractor employed by administration.
07 Destination Chargheri draws near
The boat reaches Chargheri and we alight very close to the distribution point.
8 The lowtide access of Chargheri from Garal River, inundated in high tide
The area in the video here (first 5-6 secs) becomes subnerged in the river in high tide . This is what we see here. But when the tide wanes it becomes the access path from the Garal river (see next pic).
The same area outside dyke, but in low tide
This picture from 1st trip shows the same access area in low tide
09 Unloading at Distribution point
The distribution point, and unloading rice bags from boat to stack them up there
11 People waiting near the distribution point
They are waiting for unloading to finish and issue of their allocated quota of rice.
Another boat carrying another group
A corporate group arrives on the same day through Green Camp. They distribute a few things to the locals (polythenes, lamps, a small quantity of rice, biscuits etc). They distribute the food materials under the issue system employed by us and we have no problems in accomodating them. However due to lack of prior information the distribution for their non-food materials, done independently from us, goes a little haywire in the end. The first time is always difficult in these areas, and some information, detailing and planning is required to make the distribution equitable. It is not known to us if they wish to come back regularly or it is a one time effort. We will learn later. We only hope that more groups can come, as we know that we are not supplying not even nearly the full quota needed.
12 New dyke under construction
The first thing we notice is that the dyke has grown noticeably bigger than what it was during my first visit on June 28th (see next pic)
A comparative picture of the dyke work progress
The progress of dyke work is visible in the above comparative picture, where the dyke size as on June 28th (trip 1) can be compared with the dyke size on 25th July (trip 4).
[contunued in part 2]
[The relevant picture or video is followed by the description]
Explaining HSI to Saptarshi
The history of Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) till date is explained to Saptarshi
01 hightide water level outside dykes
This sight is common to almost all areas of Sunderbans during the high tide. The inhabited land inside is lower than the high tide level and protected by earthen dykes. Hundreds of kilometres of these dykes were breached by furious Aila on 25th May 2009.
02 Boat enters Changheri through breached dyke
Our boat leaves Garal River and enters Chargheri territory, into an area which used to be a farmland.
03 Area lost to river
In this video, the boat enters an estuarine part of the village that used to be a farmland before Aila happened. Now this is an extension of the river. The new dyke is getting built a few hundred metres inside the old damaged dyke.
This entry of boat through dyke and straight sailing to the distribution area is possible only during high tide. The high tide was already receding when we reached. The boat had to be unloaded quickly and navigated to deeper waters of Garal to ensure we did not get stranded till the next high tide.
04 broken dykes of Chargheri
This video shows the remnants of the old dyke of Chargheri on Garal river. It was destroyed by Aila.
05 Another video of the area lost to river
This is another video where Kaustuv shows to Saptarshi the areas outside the new dyke, of Chargheri, all of which was farmland. Saptarshi is our friend from IBM. He was visiting first time.
06 Pumps operating on new dyke
This video shows the land inside dykes being emptied by pumps operating on them. This is done with the purpose of emptying accumulated water from farmland inside the dyke. It is the first step towards getting the land back to cultivability.
This is the first step towards of landmark of desalination. Pumping is being done by the dyke repairing contractor employed by administration.
07 Destination Chargheri draws near
The boat reaches Chargheri and we alight very close to the distribution point.
8 The lowtide access of Chargheri from Garal River, inundated in high tide
The area in the video here (first 5-6 secs) becomes subnerged in the river in high tide . This is what we see here. But when the tide wanes it becomes the access path from the Garal river (see next pic).
The same area outside dyke, but in low tide
This picture from 1st trip shows the same access area in low tide
09 Unloading at Distribution point
The distribution point, and unloading rice bags from boat to stack them up there
11 People waiting near the distribution point
They are waiting for unloading to finish and issue of their allocated quota of rice.
Another boat carrying another group
A corporate group arrives on the same day through Green Camp. They distribute a few things to the locals (polythenes, lamps, a small quantity of rice, biscuits etc). They distribute the food materials under the issue system employed by us and we have no problems in accomodating them. However due to lack of prior information the distribution for their non-food materials, done independently from us, goes a little haywire in the end. The first time is always difficult in these areas, and some information, detailing and planning is required to make the distribution equitable. It is not known to us if they wish to come back regularly or it is a one time effort. We will learn later. We only hope that more groups can come, as we know that we are not supplying not even nearly the full quota needed.
12 New dyke under construction
The first thing we notice is that the dyke has grown noticeably bigger than what it was during my first visit on June 28th (see next pic)
A comparative picture of the dyke work progress
The progress of dyke work is visible in the above comparative picture, where the dyke size as on June 28th (trip 1) can be compared with the dyke size on 25th July (trip 4).
[contunued in part 2]
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Phase IV: C O M P L E T E D
Fourth Trip
Our team is almost an hour's distance from Kolkata and shortly PAKT will finish its 4th successful mission to Chargheri with a consignment of 2800 kgs of rice. This is supply for two weeks. As we told earlier that to save transport cost, henceforth we will try to visit fortnightly and disburse the supply of two weeks in one go.
Better Planning
Koustav (Pather Katha), Angshuman (ATMA), Biswajit-da (Khelaghar) with Gopal, Saheb and Trinath (other friends from Khelaghar) along with Saptarshi from IBM, reached Chargheri by 2 pm. So we could spend around 4 hours in Chargheri. Good planning paid benefit. This time 56 rice sacks were loaded in the boat at Basanti (near Sonakhali) by the time we reached there by car; courtesy Dipankar.The main objective was to spend more time in the village to supervise the distribution work and ensure all the listed people get there share. Dipankar Mandal is one of the leaders of the local group of volunteers from Chargheri village. Every week he is coming to Gatkhali/Sonakhali before we reach there, ensure loading of rice and plays a major role in the distribution of medicine (he can even give injections!!!).
Like Saptarshi this week and Abhijit last week, we always welcome friends from any organisation to accompany us, so that they can go back a more real situation to his friends and colleagues.Saptarshi was shocked to see a village with almost no "sheds", he expected the storms has at least spared a few shelters, for taking refuge during the rains.
The List Worked
As planned last week, we have provided the listed villagers (from Chargheri, Lahiripur, Bidhan Colony, Parashmani and Santigachhi) with an ID card, to ensure smooth distribution. I must mention again that this list was prepared by the local volunteers, with the criteria of providing rice supply to all families with monthly income of less than Rs 1200. The ID card was nothing special, just a piece of paper, carrying the name of the head of the family, number of family members. The list is constantly updated and as a result the number of families has gone up from 691 (2800 people) in last week, to 721 this week. The objective is very simple: to ensure that maximum number of villagers from these five villages, willing to avail our assistance and satisfying the above criteria, can get it. This idea of ID card concept worked quite well.
Before an evening storm with heavy downpour forced us to make a hasty retreat to our boat, we could finish distribution to 686 families. PAKT team is quite satisfied. 94 people were provided medicine. The PAKT team carried 20 tetanus with them. But we could not arrange any doctor also this week. This is something we are trying desperately but in vain. So the medicine department was left to the charge of Dipankar – our local hero. One good thing – the same patient never visit him twice!!!
Thank you but We Need More Well Wishers
At least six more weeks – we need to race against the time to collect resources. We thank all the well wishers of PAKT who has so far extended their hand to our Help Sunderban Initiative. We hope more people will join us, so that we can achieve our dream of continuing supply till the government assistance are regularised. We look forward to a Chargheri, which will welcome the tourists in the last human habitation of the Sunderbans – not wait for the boats carrying relief materials.
Our team is almost an hour's distance from Kolkata and shortly PAKT will finish its 4th successful mission to Chargheri with a consignment of 2800 kgs of rice. This is supply for two weeks. As we told earlier that to save transport cost, henceforth we will try to visit fortnightly and disburse the supply of two weeks in one go.
Better Planning
Koustav (Pather Katha), Angshuman (ATMA), Biswajit-da (Khelaghar) with Gopal, Saheb and Trinath (other friends from Khelaghar) along with Saptarshi from IBM, reached Chargheri by 2 pm. So we could spend around 4 hours in Chargheri. Good planning paid benefit. This time 56 rice sacks were loaded in the boat at Basanti (near Sonakhali) by the time we reached there by car; courtesy Dipankar.The main objective was to spend more time in the village to supervise the distribution work and ensure all the listed people get there share. Dipankar Mandal is one of the leaders of the local group of volunteers from Chargheri village. Every week he is coming to Gatkhali/Sonakhali before we reach there, ensure loading of rice and plays a major role in the distribution of medicine (he can even give injections!!!).
Like Saptarshi this week and Abhijit last week, we always welcome friends from any organisation to accompany us, so that they can go back a more real situation to his friends and colleagues.Saptarshi was shocked to see a village with almost no "sheds", he expected the storms has at least spared a few shelters, for taking refuge during the rains.
The List Worked
As planned last week, we have provided the listed villagers (from Chargheri, Lahiripur, Bidhan Colony, Parashmani and Santigachhi) with an ID card, to ensure smooth distribution. I must mention again that this list was prepared by the local volunteers, with the criteria of providing rice supply to all families with monthly income of less than Rs 1200. The ID card was nothing special, just a piece of paper, carrying the name of the head of the family, number of family members. The list is constantly updated and as a result the number of families has gone up from 691 (2800 people) in last week, to 721 this week. The objective is very simple: to ensure that maximum number of villagers from these five villages, willing to avail our assistance and satisfying the above criteria, can get it. This idea of ID card concept worked quite well.
Before an evening storm with heavy downpour forced us to make a hasty retreat to our boat, we could finish distribution to 686 families. PAKT team is quite satisfied. 94 people were provided medicine. The PAKT team carried 20 tetanus with them. But we could not arrange any doctor also this week. This is something we are trying desperately but in vain. So the medicine department was left to the charge of Dipankar – our local hero. One good thing – the same patient never visit him twice!!!
Thank you but We Need More Well Wishers
At least six more weeks – we need to race against the time to collect resources. We thank all the well wishers of PAKT who has so far extended their hand to our Help Sunderban Initiative. We hope more people will join us, so that we can achieve our dream of continuing supply till the government assistance are regularised. We look forward to a Chargheri, which will welcome the tourists in the last human habitation of the Sunderbans – not wait for the boats carrying relief materials.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Thank You! We know you are with us
Some of our wellwishers have already responded to our request for support. A few of them have also requested other people they know for extending support. And we have got positive responses from those quarters too.
A few have offered to help HSI (Help Sunderbans Initiative) financially. Others have contributed by extending our call of help to reach more people. There are those who have also offered to come with us to help the distribution.
We sincerely hope that this post gets read by anyone who has extended, or wishes to extend, his / her hand in one capacity or the other towards the people of Sunderbans who brought us all together.
All we can say now to all of you is:
We are encouraged, inspired and energised by your spontaneous responses. We are banking on you to see this through. All we require now is the message of need to help the affected people to spread as wide as it can. We are some way into the journey, but we have a long way to go. And we will need the support to keep coming in all the time.
We are visiting Chargheri tomorrow (actually today). This time we plan to distribute food materials for 2 weeks. It will not be easy at all. Everything except the number of people will be double. It will be a challenge to complete it all before dusk.
But then this saves us about 4500 bucks per fortnight by way of cutting the transport expense into half.
A few have offered to help HSI (Help Sunderbans Initiative) financially. Others have contributed by extending our call of help to reach more people. There are those who have also offered to come with us to help the distribution.
We sincerely hope that this post gets read by anyone who has extended, or wishes to extend, his / her hand in one capacity or the other towards the people of Sunderbans who brought us all together.
All we can say now to all of you is:
We are encouraged, inspired and energised by your spontaneous responses. We are banking on you to see this through. All we require now is the message of need to help the affected people to spread as wide as it can. We are some way into the journey, but we have a long way to go. And we will need the support to keep coming in all the time.
We are visiting Chargheri tomorrow (actually today). This time we plan to distribute food materials for 2 weeks. It will not be easy at all. Everything except the number of people will be double. It will be a challenge to complete it all before dusk.
But then this saves us about 4500 bucks per fortnight by way of cutting the transport expense into half.
We need you
Aila is a tropical cyclonic storm, formed due to severe depression over the Bay of Bengal, near coastal Bengal. It hit West Bengal and Orissa as well as Bangladesh on 25th May, 2009. The severe storm with tidal waves, caused by winds of speed up to 110 kilometers per hour, continued to play havoc till the evening of 26th, from coastal Sunderbans to the Hills in the Darjeeling, causing widespread damage to human life and property and left millions of people homeless.
According to Government sources the total loss is 1300 crores of Rs. and assessment report of damage is as follows:
Affected people : 67 lakhs
Loss of life : 137
Most affected area : North and South 24 Parganas, specially in the Sunderbans
Houses destroyed: : Almost 9 lakh semi permanent
houses. Till middle of June, 3.78 laks of people were in shelters of 765 relief camps
Severe damages : 500 kms of earthen dyke in the Sunderbans breached and saline water inundated the villages, poisoned the agricultural lands (2.89 milion ha), rendering them useless for around next two seasons, 100% loss of standing crops and substantial amount of stored crops.
The Sunderbans bore most of Aila’s wrath. Being remotely located and poorly connected with land part, many of the island villages here had received very little sustained assistance from Government or other non Government sources. Chargheri village in Satjelia Island is one such worst affected village. It takes 3.5 hours by boat to reach this place from the last land point (Gatkhali) connected to Kolkata city by Road.
After Aila, Purbasha, an Eco-tourism organisation by local village people sent SOS to everyone they know in Kolkata. Immediate response came from a Chandannagar based club and subsequently the baton was passed to a combined initiative of PAKT, a team comprising Pather Katha (an Orkut based community), ATMA (a benevolent organization of Jadavpur University Students of Civil Engineering, 1995 batch) and Khela Ghar (a Garia based club). None of these organizations are NGOs.
The members took part in the relief at Chagheri as individuals on 28th June, 2009 and after seeing the conditions decided to joined hand together to continue assisting the people there with food and medicine.
So far during 4 weekly visits (fourth visit is about to start while writing this) PAKT has been able to distribute 5700 kg of rice, medicine worth more than 25,000 Rs., Mushuri Dal 100 kg, Mosquito net - 35 pieces, soyabean Chunks - 60 kg, 4 big bundle of clothes, 350 packets of ORS, 250 packets of biscuits, 200 Candle Sticks, 200 Match Boxes. The distribution mechanism formed by the local people, (mainly by the people of Purbasha) under our supervision are performing effectively in ensuring distribution in an unbiased manner. Presently, the concentration is mainly on providing rice (@ 500 gram per head per week for 2800 villagers from Chargheri and nearby 4 villages Santigachhi, Parashmani, Lahiripur and Bidhan Colony) and medicine.
The cost of weekly assistance provided by us is around 30,000 Rs. including transportation cost from Kolkata to Gatkhali and cost of mechanised boat. We are determined to continue this assistance for at least another two months by which time local people are expected to rebuild their houses, receive Government assistance and find out alternative livelihoods. However, our aim is to continue for four months as the Government sponsored permanent dyke repair work will start by that time and people may have a steady source of income.
With the available funds of the participating groups of PAKT we cannot continue for another two weeks. So we request for assistance from all people. ATMA has a bank account to which all the contributions can be made.
Will you kindly extend your support to us??
According to Government sources the total loss is 1300 crores of Rs. and assessment report of damage is as follows:
Affected people : 67 lakhs
Loss of life : 137
Most affected area : North and South 24 Parganas, specially in the Sunderbans
Houses destroyed: : Almost 9 lakh semi permanent
houses. Till middle of June, 3.78 laks of people were in shelters of 765 relief camps
Severe damages : 500 kms of earthen dyke in the Sunderbans breached and saline water inundated the villages, poisoned the agricultural lands (2.89 milion ha), rendering them useless for around next two seasons, 100% loss of standing crops and substantial amount of stored crops.
The Sunderbans bore most of Aila’s wrath. Being remotely located and poorly connected with land part, many of the island villages here had received very little sustained assistance from Government or other non Government sources. Chargheri village in Satjelia Island is one such worst affected village. It takes 3.5 hours by boat to reach this place from the last land point (Gatkhali) connected to Kolkata city by Road.
After Aila, Purbasha, an Eco-tourism organisation by local village people sent SOS to everyone they know in Kolkata. Immediate response came from a Chandannagar based club and subsequently the baton was passed to a combined initiative of PAKT, a team comprising Pather Katha (an Orkut based community), ATMA (a benevolent organization of Jadavpur University Students of Civil Engineering, 1995 batch) and Khela Ghar (a Garia based club). None of these organizations are NGOs.
The members took part in the relief at Chagheri as individuals on 28th June, 2009 and after seeing the conditions decided to joined hand together to continue assisting the people there with food and medicine.
So far during 4 weekly visits (fourth visit is about to start while writing this) PAKT has been able to distribute 5700 kg of rice, medicine worth more than 25,000 Rs., Mushuri Dal 100 kg, Mosquito net - 35 pieces, soyabean Chunks - 60 kg, 4 big bundle of clothes, 350 packets of ORS, 250 packets of biscuits, 200 Candle Sticks, 200 Match Boxes. The distribution mechanism formed by the local people, (mainly by the people of Purbasha) under our supervision are performing effectively in ensuring distribution in an unbiased manner. Presently, the concentration is mainly on providing rice (@ 500 gram per head per week for 2800 villagers from Chargheri and nearby 4 villages Santigachhi, Parashmani, Lahiripur and Bidhan Colony) and medicine.
The cost of weekly assistance provided by us is around 30,000 Rs. including transportation cost from Kolkata to Gatkhali and cost of mechanised boat. We are determined to continue this assistance for at least another two months by which time local people are expected to rebuild their houses, receive Government assistance and find out alternative livelihoods. However, our aim is to continue for four months as the Government sponsored permanent dyke repair work will start by that time and people may have a steady source of income.
With the available funds of the participating groups of PAKT we cannot continue for another two weeks. So we request for assistance from all people. ATMA has a bank account to which all the contributions can be made.
Will you kindly extend your support to us??
Monday, July 20, 2009
RDPH
That is Rice distribution per head. We have not really been able to come to a decision on this issue.
This part of Satjelia consists of 5 villages - Chargheri and 4 other villages called Lahiripur, Santigachi, Bidhan Colony and Porosmoni. The 5 villages have approx. 3500 people in total. These folk have been receiving help so far as a community. We found that it is almost socially impossible now to randomly adopt some of these villages and tell the others to disappear. There would be no plausible ground based on which we can choose one village over another. We believe that such arbitrary seggregation will make the task of PAKT even more difficult.
Pushed to our limits of decision making, we are now going ahead by 'adopting' all the 5 villages. However to support 3500 people with 'normal' rice consumption for weeks on end looks like a financially daunting prospect until we can fully assess the volume of funds we are likely to have.
Hence we have tried four exercises to maximise the food quantity per person per week:
This part of Satjelia consists of 5 villages - Chargheri and 4 other villages called Lahiripur, Santigachi, Bidhan Colony and Porosmoni. The 5 villages have approx. 3500 people in total. These folk have been receiving help so far as a community. We found that it is almost socially impossible now to randomly adopt some of these villages and tell the others to disappear. There would be no plausible ground based on which we can choose one village over another. We believe that such arbitrary seggregation will make the task of PAKT even more difficult.
Pushed to our limits of decision making, we are now going ahead by 'adopting' all the 5 villages. However to support 3500 people with 'normal' rice consumption for weeks on end looks like a financially daunting prospect until we can fully assess the volume of funds we are likely to have.
Hence we have tried four exercises to maximise the food quantity per person per week:
- Identify the families with virtually no current income, prioritise their need and exclude the others: this exercise is done by the local group of volunteers at Chargheri but is yet to be substantiated. However it has taken the number of recipients down from 3500 to 2800 in the current week - we may need to further refine this method of "elimination by logical discrimination"
- Assume that people these families are not doing the physical work (as they have no employment) they did in normal life, and hence the minimum food requirement for sustenance may be lower than 'normal'.
- Cut down on cost of transport of rice from Kolkata by procuring rice after reaching Sonakhali / Jayanti and directly loading it on the steamer: this allows a cutdown on land transport cost of rice. However this increases the total 'start to end' time required for the team visiting from Kolkata and returning here. [They start at early morning - around 5 am - and reach home after midnight].
- Explore the possibility of making the food grain distribution a fortlightly affair instead of the current weekly one: This modality is not yet decided, but making it fortnightly obviously makes it more cost effective. However there can be other very practical issues that can prevent it from happening (e.g. doubling of quantities may mean that it is no more possible to complete purchase / transport / distribution in a single day's time frame)
With all but part 4 of the above steps implemented, 1400 kg still measures up to a meagre 500 gms for each of the 2800 persons over a week.
We hope to implement part 4 in the next trip.
The 'discrimination' based on part 1 was implemented on the 3rd visit. We still have no formal policy on this, and I doubt if there ever can be. It received mixed responses from the folk, and needs to be streamlined / fine-tuned over time supported by more information.
Silver lining
There are a few things that can get better hereon. The bund (or dyke) may get repaired for which work is underway. Rains may remove salinity and people may go back to the fields later in the year. More unforeseen employment opportunities can come up. There is a genuine expetaction in local people that within a few months administration will finally jump in to redeem this lot. They have been told that they can get home re-building loans as soon as within 3 months. Many of them can also get a loan to resume their trade a further couple of months later. However none of these infomation are first hand. All are from sources in Chargheri.
If some of these actually happen, these people can find a way to survive without anyone's help.
3rd visit and formation of PAKT
Kaustuv, Sandeepan and Biswajit - da (another friend of ours, introduced to us by Kaustuv, who is actively supporting this effort from the 1st visit itself) have made the 3rd team visit to our target area on Saturday the 18th of July with a shipment of 1400 kg of rice. This food material is distributed amongst approximately 2800 people in 670 odd families (expected to cover for one week). Like previous weeks, the expenses of food purchase and transport were met through individual contributions from some of the above people and a few of their friends.
Pictures here.
For ease of reference, henceforth we will refer to this initiative of ours to support the people of Sunderbans as "Help Sunderbans Initiative" or HSI.
Kaustuv, Sandeepan, Biswajit da and myself represent 3 independent non-profit organisations. Starting off more as individuals willing to help the people at Sunderbans, we have now involved these organisations in this work. It did not take us long to assess the manpower and fund involvement required to pull through this effort on a sustained basis.
Sandeepan and I are associated with Atanu Memorial Association, or ATMA, for nearly 6 years. It is a registered welfare association formed by our college mates. Pather Katha is Kaustuv's orkut travel community. Khelaghar is a youth club at Garia who are involved in social welfare activities. Biswajit da and our other new friends Susanta, Santanu & Partha are all associated with Khelaghar.
Pather Katha has joined hands with ATMA and Khelaghar to form PAKT i.e. PatherKatha-ATMA-Khelaghar Team!! In other words PAKT is an informal and temporary "JV" of these three associations, formed solely for the purpose of making Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) a reality.
But then PAKT is also so much more than these three organisations. It would have little chance to fulfil its purpose of formation without the many others, perhaps including you, who are putting their hands up to offer help in various forms.
[Hope this deluge of names does not distract you! Let us just say that HSI is merely the reference (or project) name for the undertaken work and PAKT is the group trying to carry it out.]
Pictures here.
For ease of reference, henceforth we will refer to this initiative of ours to support the people of Sunderbans as "Help Sunderbans Initiative" or HSI.
Kaustuv, Sandeepan, Biswajit da and myself represent 3 independent non-profit organisations. Starting off more as individuals willing to help the people at Sunderbans, we have now involved these organisations in this work. It did not take us long to assess the manpower and fund involvement required to pull through this effort on a sustained basis.
Sandeepan and I are associated with Atanu Memorial Association, or ATMA, for nearly 6 years. It is a registered welfare association formed by our college mates. Pather Katha is Kaustuv's orkut travel community. Khelaghar is a youth club at Garia who are involved in social welfare activities. Biswajit da and our other new friends Susanta, Santanu & Partha are all associated with Khelaghar.
Pather Katha has joined hands with ATMA and Khelaghar to form PAKT i.e. PatherKatha-ATMA-Khelaghar Team!! In other words PAKT is an informal and temporary "JV" of these three associations, formed solely for the purpose of making Help Sunderbans Initiative (HSI) a reality.
But then PAKT is also so much more than these three organisations. It would have little chance to fulfil its purpose of formation without the many others, perhaps including you, who are putting their hands up to offer help in various forms.
[Hope this deluge of names does not distract you! Let us just say that HSI is merely the reference (or project) name for the undertaken work and PAKT is the group trying to carry it out.]
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Map of Sunderbans
This is a representative map of Sunderbans (source unknown to us - apologies for inability to quote source). It shows the various inhabitable areas along with the Tiger Project / Wildlife sanctuary areas (shown in red & blue dotted lines) in the Sunderbans region.
Our area of action is going to be "Chargheri'r char" (the distribution point) and four other neighbouring villages called "Lahiripur", "Santigachi", "Bidhan Colony" and "Porosmoni". These are part of Satjelia which is indicated in the map.
Click on the map to get an enlarged view.
Considering we start the river journey from Sonakhali / Basanti, this map explains why it takes us so much time (3 hours one way - can be more depending on the tide) to reach Satjelia. The steamer got a little delayed today in the morning. The immediate impact of its late arrival was that the team from Kolkata returned back home past 1 am in the morning.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Chargheri - Trip 2
So for another week we could make it. The feeling is like playing out a mandatory over to avoid an imminent innings defeat. This Sunday, Koustav from Pather Katha went there with Avijit, four friends from Khelaghar and Goutam of Green Camp. As usual Koaustav's Picassa and the captured videos tell it all.
This time Team Pather Katha could manage 1000 kg of rice. To save the conveyance cost, it was procured from Sonakhali, before boarding the launch. Not a very easy task, but had little option to save this transportation cost from Kolkata. There were some left-over (60 kg soyabean nuggets, around 200 kg rice, and good amount of medicine) at Chargheri (obviously at our local storeroom in Dipankar’s Launch) after last week’s distribution. Kouastav also took with him 10 vials of tetanus after getting information about the local requirement.
By the way, Can anyone suggest any Kolkata based wholesaler who is ready to supply 1000 kg or more rice every week @ Rs 12 or less a kg? That will be a big help.
One main objective of this week's visit was to collect the basic information so as to streamline our future requirements and course of action. Just jotting down what we could gather by talking with people there (courtesy Koustav and our friends from Khelaghar)
How strong is the distribution mechanism
There was a very decent queue. Separate arrangements were made for food and medicine. A clear register was maintained (we got a copy). Whenever people were coming with some specific demand like mosquito net or any special medicine, it was verified that he has not already received one. If the resource is not available it is noted down. We wanted to ensure that the mechanism we are using for distribution were unbiased. Extensive interaction was done with the people in the queue and the general feeling is they are satisfied with the mechanism
What are the villages from which people are coming
On 4th July (I just remembered what a significant day, America’s independence day and Swami Vivekanada’s death anniversary), there were people not only from Chargheri but also from nearby villages Lahiripur, Santigachi, BidhanKoloni, Porosmoni. Earlier we checked out from internet that Lahiripur and Santigachhi among the worst affected one. We had a feel that people from nearby villages are also coming to Chargheri, hen the heard about the relief distribution and only get confirmed after the verification.
How many families we have covered
Last Sunday precisely there were 666 families who collected the assistance. There were not too many requirements for medicine. Good – the general health condition is not so bad. Koustav has a good flavour for data analysis and after gathering the lists for past few weeks he prepared a nice trend analysis on how many people has been served so far in Chargherir Char by Green Camp and its associates like Pather KAtha, Khelaghar, Euphonic.
- 28th May: 565 families (distribution was done on 28th, 29th May and 1st June)
- 5th June 649 families (distribution was done on 5th, 6th, 7th and 9th June)
- 14th June 895 families (distribution was done on 14th, 16th June)
- 21st June 577 families (distribution was done on 28th, 29th May and 1st June)
- 28th June 671 families
- 5th July 666 families
Clearly when a consignment reaches there on a particular day, the distribution often spills over a few days, courtesy Dipankar and the local people who are actively doing the distribution work. But it is clear we have to be ready between 600-700 families.
Is there any help from other sourcesThis is a major information that was needed in order to streamline our role. After talking with people we could find, so far government has given 5 kilos of rice per family since 25th May, tarpaulin and intermittently some supply of kerosene. This is what we could gather by talking with people on that day, so do not consider it as a official figure. What worries us is the lack of steady supply of relief material. That is evident. Employment opportunities are there in the form of works for embankment repair. Government is paying through the Panchayet for engaging local people in the repair work. Still not sure how many people are getting opportunities under this. But a person can earn 900 Rs for each 1000 cfm of earthwork and this can be done in 4-5 days. May be they get 50% of this as the appointment is through contractors. But this is still equivalent to more than 20 kgs of rice. Nearesr market is Satjelia bajar – not too easy to rich without a boat. But clearly if a family has at least one person getting this work opportunity, he does not have to depend on our relief much.
“Bare” Economics of sustenance revisited
Or shall I call it mathematics of hunger? The whole calculation was done considering 500 grams per head per week. But we calculated based on urban hunger. An elderly person clearly told “babu kaj kore khete gele dine 900 gram chal lage ekek janer – er kame chalti pari na”. Just no answer. How selfish we are to reduce it to half.
So revise the calculation with 4 kgs of rice per family per week and the weekly requirement for 500 families is around 2000*13 =26,000 Rs.
Still too big an amount for long run (may be a month or more). One way may be to cut down the number of families. Those who has got some work in embankment repair can possibly be leftout. The filtering is an arduous task - but let us give it a go.
Another thing - an well wisher suggested us to contact the concerned ministry of State Government to make them aware of the situation. He was kind enough to give us all the contacts - still we are undecided on this issue. Does the Government need us to tell that people needs help? Don't know .... . If anyone has a view will love to listen.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Update for 5th July
Kaustuv has accompanied Green Camp to distribute some more relief at Chargheri today. We can expect to see some pictorial updates from him on Kaustuv’s Picasa in a few days. The fund collections for this week were quite less compared to last week, and the quantity carried to Chargheri may fall short of the requirement for the week (even taking account of any surpluses from last week). Most of the contributions for the current week are based on large personal contributions from fewer members. Mixed feelings come.
However as the previous post unambiguously states, our action area and role is yet to be decided. Assessment of ground realities have to continue a little longer. It may be a little frustrating for all of us over this period, but unfortunately there is no shortcut to it. We need to assess well to have any hopes of doing it well and ensuring that the right people get the benefits of people's contributions. We have been late in jumping in; the worst we can do at this point of time is try to make up for it by drastically cutting down on the time needed to assess and plan.
Our plan of action
On 1st July I had sent an email communication to my friends for two purposes:
a) Updating them about the plight of the people in Sunderbans (via links to this blogpost and uploaded snaps on Picasa), and
b) Explaining the course of action we have taken to first decide what (and how much) we can do and then to frame up how to do it.
Sandeepan advises me to share that email communication on this website. I see no harm in sharing the same with people visiting this blog. Doing the needful below.
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My college mate Sandeepan and I joined a group of acquaintances to participate in a visit to Sunderbans to distribute relief to cyclone Aila affected villagers in a remote part of the Sunderbans named Satjelia.
I have tried to put up an account of the experience we had on that day in this blogpost. Request you to go through it now if time permits. I am almost inclined to say that I am willing to call up and explain the experience to you in person. I would love to do so, but I am going through a phase when I can hardly manage that kind of time. Hence that post. Hope you do not miss out to go through the picture and video links for (i) the journey to Satjelia and (ii) visit to Aila affected village Chargheri (Chargheri is a village in Satjelia no. 10 area)
After that visit, some of us want to seriously be responsible to take up a particular affected area of Suderbans on an extended basis. It will all depend on the resources we can pull in. Right now we are trying to assess our capability on five aspects:
1) To identify an affected place which is remote, which is not receiving essential help and where we can manage to sustain the operation through an apolitical setup facilitating the relief ditribution (could well be Chargheri which fits the bill, or some other)
2) Ensuring one of us can take turns to visit the place to keep a control on the distribution process
3) To have a control on the distribution process which will involve some other concerns like polarisation of local people & mass flocking from 'non adopted' villages,
4) Establish a way of stock-taking to ensure that target people are receiving the relief and that relief stocks are not getting misplaced / misappropriated, and
5) The funds that we can pull in over this extended period, so that we can assess exactly how many people we can aim to support with bare necessities (rice, essential medicine, used clothes, mosquito nets, etc) for that period of time.
[This post tries to summarise the approximate expenses per head per year - the figure is not too much per person but the smallest unit we can adopt is a village. If funds permit, we can possibly go for a small cluster of 3-4 villages]
When we are through with this exercise, I may come back to you to ask for help. If we do ask, we are likely to ask for a commitment from you as to what amount (if any) you think you can contribute to this cause. We may also ask whether you have any problem if we want you to give us the option to decide when to request you for it.
This is because we are not opening any fund account; instead every time we need funds we plan to ask for the commited amount from a different set of people, raising just enough to ensure that supplies we send in that instalment are adequate. Please be absolutely clear that after committing you will be asked only once - it is only that we may request that the time of asking be left to us.
As I said, we are first assessing our capabilities and resources to see this effort through. The last thing we want is is to adopt some people and then say to them one fine day "hey folks - this is the final time as we can't do this anymore - best of luck" and never return.
If we think we can manage the above issues and last the distance, we come back to you.
I know you well and long enough to expect a frank answer from you.
Thanks for the patient hearing.
Angshuman
Note: Even if we do not come back to you, I request you to look for ways to contribute in your own way towards helping his people out of misery. Maybe you already have.
And do spread the message that people in this area may need more help over a period of time than is now forthcoming.
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Saturday, July 4, 2009
Travel time
I will be travelling over the coming 2 weeks. While I will try to keep you updated on our relief activities by making a post or two in this period, there is always a possibility that I may not be able to do it as I will be travelling minus a laptop.
It may be worthwhile to check up on Kaustuv Bhattacharya's Picasa album from time to time, in case you find this site to have stagnated for the next 2 weeks. Kaustuv is the one who has brought us together in this common cause.
I expect to resume normal duties in 2 weeks time.
It may be worthwhile to check up on Kaustuv Bhattacharya's Picasa album from time to time, in case you find this site to have stagnated for the next 2 weeks. Kaustuv is the one who has brought us together in this common cause.
I expect to resume normal duties in 2 weeks time.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
The bare economics of sustenance
As the earlier post summarises, people in some of the areas in remote Sunderbans need long term support till they are back to sustaining themselves on their own. Even providing them a meagre ration of rice for an extended period (which can potentially reach upto a year) will keep alive hopes of their surviving through the ordeal. We have learnt that a person can just about manage with about 500 gms of rice (chaal) per week. That effectively means about 25 kgs of rice a year - approx 300 rupees worth. Add 50% more for medicines, mosquito nets, match boxes, some other one-time necessities and it comes to about Rs. 450-500 per person per year for the barest sustenance. [see Update below]
Am I sounding too cruel? "Why can't we give them dal and vegetables?" Sometimes they get those too, but you see a kilogramof dal costs the same as about 4 kg of rice - and hence even dal is a luxury. Many more mouths can be fed if rice is supplied. And we thought the people there also support the approach that it is better to distribute some extra rice than replacing it with a fistful of dal & vegetables. Ocasionally vegetables are supplied based on 'good fund' weeks - but the plan still remains to provide meagre sustenance for more people.
Hopefully the bunds will be repaired and the cultivable soil will be purged of salination in another year, in addition to the people creating new job opportunities for themselves through enterprise. So five hundred bucks of stuff is all that each person asks to be supplied at his doorstep to prop him / her up through the year from hell. But even so they are hardly getting their need fulfilled.
Update: After making this post we have done some analysis of the figures above, and we feel the minimum rice consumption given above may need review. The rice consumption at ou homes works out to nearly 1.4 kg per person per week for a moderately eating people taking rice twice a day (with quite a few other items to be had with it). Perhaps there was some serious error in the figure we received.
I suspect 500 gms per week per person may be a little too less ever for bare necessity. Sustenance figure goes up closer to Rs 750/- per head per year or thereabouts, considering we will need to provide close to a kg per person per week to sustain him / her.
Any feedback from you on this will be most helpful. And it will be priceless if you have participated in relief activities earlier. This estimate will be the basis for any effort we plan to take up. [See further update below]
Note: Established benevolent organisations like Ramakrishna Mission and Bharat Sevashram and others including UNICEF are also working in various areas in Sunderbans. However they have already assessed what they can manage and are now concentrating on their chosen area. We have been late in getting into the act, but as things stand now we intend to work in areas that have not being adopted and supported by any major groups including the establishment.
Further update: Another visit to Chargheri seems to make even the above assessment in "update" section seem too tight. Ultimately we are talking about people putting in physical labour, but assessing their food requirement as per city dwelling office-working folk. The requirement per week per head may go up a little further. Sandeepan gives an idea in this post.
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