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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