It is all happening because of you

We joined a group of relief providers and set off for an unknown destination deep within the Sunderbans in end June, over a month after Aila struck the area and paralysed life for numerous villages and communities in the Sunderbans. We contributed some money towards the cause, and wanted to be caring enough to ensure that the foodstuff reaches the people that need it. But we were then thinking of a one-time support.

It all changed when we reached the destination where these villagers lived. We saw the condition of Chargheri & other southern villages of Satjelia. Each of the then-unformed PAKT group showed vocal / silent support to continuing the effort to supply basic food assistance to these severely affected people. To give them something to fill their bellies after their livelihood was put on hold for 2 years, and ALSO to show them a ray of hope, "to reassure them that not everyone beyond that floating horizon of the tidal waters has forgotten about them" (as we put it in our first blogpost).

We went to you with an extended plan to support these people for next few months with food relief. The basic plan was to pick up a social unit of people and supply them with bare minimal nutrition for the next months, at least till Sep'09. All of us subsequently speculated on the specific locations to lend our services to, and agreed that the devastated families of Chargheri & other four villlages (Santigachhi, Bidhan Colony, Lahiripur, Porosmoni) were as much deserving of assistance as people of other Aila-devastated areas in the Sunderbans. Then we discussed the number of people we had to support as a social unit and the quantity of rice per head that we could supply on an extended basis (was it too less to have any meaning?). We formed PAKT and re-visited the original speculative head count and rice quantity against the funds that we practically expected from within the group (PAKT) and their well-wishers - all of you - based on personal commitments and responses.

When we found that the funds were falling short of the target, we re-appealed to all of you and you responded by further replenishing PAKT funds so that commitment to supply food till Sep '09 could be met. We also asked you to join us and help us serve these people, and again got positive responses from you.

We needed to make our distribution system robust and organised, eliminating chances of deserving candidates losing out to strongmen who nudge the weaker folk out of the queue to grab more relief. Purbasha, a local eco-tourism group, offered some manpower assitance during our visits and also helped us collect local information. Thanks to Kaustuv's planning (and insistence) we implemented an extremely successful, uniquely numbered card based system for the families we identified as being 'covered' by PAKT.

Subsequently when we found that these people were going to have to fend for themselves after September, we went to them and asked them what they felt is the way forward. We did not think continuing with relief or extending it beyond September '09 as the right way forward. Fortunately, that was also the feedback we got from a lot of the locals. They wanted to start doing something for themselves.

We tried to build on that good spirit and willingness shown by the local people towards rehabilitating themselves. We found support from two NGO's, PRISM and Swanirvar, in arranging for the most effective self-rehabilitation that we think is possible for a multitude of farmers struggling with salined lands. After some preliminary background work, PAKT have arranged to train the local farmers in a manner so that they can grow their own vegetables come this winter. That will help these farming families to sustain themselves as well as to certainly reduce their expenses on expensive vegetables bought from market. The farmers will also have to take additional responsibilities and share their newly gained alternative crop related knowledge with other farmers in their villages who could not be accomodated in the external training.

We have also placed 4 needy local people at some hotels around West Bengal for jobs. More jobs are possible if more locals show their willlingness to move out.

The people of Chargheri and the other 4 villages still need to be supported before we can stand back and say that "they are rehabilitating themselves". The crop training (3rd phase) for another 25 odd farmers begins tomorrow. We then plan to distribute relevant seeds to ALL farmers (farmers with formal training as also farmers getting "second hand" training from formally trained farmers) before mid October so that the vegetable crop can be sown at the right time.

We are trying to look for more self employment options for these people in the field of cottage industry products. Exploring training of locals (especialy women) in those directions is certainly not far from our minds but choosing the right local skill is of paramount importance for making the products saleable in the market.

We plan to distribute blankets for these families ahead of the winter.

Tomorrow (19th Sep '09) is going to be our 8th trip to the location where PAKT have been distributing rice at Sunderbans since end of June '09. This is planned to be the last visit where PAKT provide food materials to the local people. We have been declaring this intended closure of relief on 19-Sep-09 over the past 3 visits to the recipients so that it does not come as a shock to them. We have also seen enough enthusiasm amongst locals with the alternative crop training program to believe that they (the local farmer community) see a lifeline in it, that they are willing to cultivate their new techniques on whatever land they can find untouched by stagnated brackish water. The relief had to come to an end, and they are accepting it as a reality at the right time.

While PAKT will continue visiting the area for other rehabilitation efforts mentioned above, the food relief part of Help Suderbans Initiative ends tomorrow. When we distribute rice for the last time at Chargheri in about 13-14 hours from now, we hope to get a further confirmation that the people in general are taking this closure without bitterness, and that they are already looking beyond waiting at queues with cards in hand to witness sacks of rice being stacked under a PAKT banner every fortnight. This sustenance of hope at the end of relief phase is what these people will desperately need to keep themselves afloat in their coming 12-15 months of struggle. Relief will now have to be replaced by self-belief, for which PAKT has been trying to arm them with knowledge to tackle their present state.

We needed a lot of funds to pull off the food relief phase. All of this has happened because of YOU. No words are apt enough to express our gratitude...or its magnitude, nor do we feel any pressing need of that being qualified or quantified. It is festival season here in West Bengal, and may your support / blessings / assistance / prayers / words of encouragement / love be as much with us as with the people we are all committed to continue supporting on their path to rehabilitating themselves.

PS: We may still come back to you for some more help for support of the rehabilitation process. We expect to have proved worthy of your trust so far, and hence we will not hesitate to ask for your (further) help if and when it is needed.

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.