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.

Planning for PHASE V

Revised List Ready

We sat with Dipankar today evening. Dipankar came down from Chargheri with the updated list for our distribution. Now the number of families are 721. As we told that quite a number of cards are damaged last week and also some people were found to be missed out, we have decided to issue a new set of card based on these revised list. Surely it’s a headache for us now to print the cards in Bengali and put them in some kind of card holder. But we can solve it.

Cost cutting:

Good news, we have been successful in reducing the cost of our expenditure for hiring the boat (Sonakhali to Chargheri and back). It is now Rs 2300 per trip now. After some discussion, Purbasha, thelocal volunteer group working with us has agreed to share Rs 500 per trip and a boat owner has agreed to reduce the rent to Rs 1800/- per trip. So we save Rs 1000 per trip. Next was rice. We started at Rs 12.50 per kg, but last two week the rice sellers at Basanti did not buzz a paisa from 13.50. No Dipamkar come u with a good idea to procure directly from the people who prduces rice in the mill – not from the wholeseller. This may give a price reduction we are looking for. He will confirm the possibility by next Wednesday. A ray of hope – a savings of Rs 1 a kg will save Rs 1400 per week, almost 100 kg rice. Good bargaining.

Additional Supply

During our third visit as soon as I got down from the boat, a villager very politely asked, " any vegetable this time?" I was too embarrassed to say no, could just manage to mumble "no, we are concentrating on rice only". But we vowed if possible sometimes we will try to give them some vegetable, they almost forgot the taste. Considering cost and local people’s liking, Arum (simple kachu) was selected. It will cost us Rs 900 to provide each family with one Arum. Just the amount we saved from boat. We are really feeling happy. Also there is a need of some 10 pieces of polythene sheet to provide sheds for tuition classes for the students . With almost half empty stomach, people are still thinking about education. Again, it is a mutually beneficial effort for both student and teacher . So we immediately decided to supply this next week. The cost may be something like 2500 Rs. But we will spare it. Dipankar has also brought a list of medicine,

Ground reality

Again we try to assess from Dipankar how people are maanging. We know what we are giving is less than bare minimum. We came to know the help earlier coming in that area from different benevolent organisations has almost stopped. Their only supply line is our weekly assistance and that from Forest department. Yes, the forest department is supplying 1 kg of rice per week per family and 200 gm pulses. The distribution is done from local ADC (? Will try to know about it) office. So government is doing something, but far less than the required. Some people are working on temporary embankment rehabilitation and earning some amount. To buy essentials.

So planning is complete, waiting for the mission next week.

Focus on next week's visit (5th trip, 8th August)

As we have shared earlier, we are intent on saving conveyance costs by cutting down on number of visits. In other words, distributing for two weeks in one visit.

In line with that, last week we had distributed rice to the people of the five villages for two weeks (i.e., 2 x 500 gms = 1 Kg/head for 2 weeks). This gives us a spare weekend, as also a fine scope to plan the details and logistics for our next visit including assessment of our fund situations.

Dipankar is likely to join us in the evening today with an updated list of families. During that meeting we plan to discuss and look into other observations and requirements that we noted down during last visit.

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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