DHAN FOUNDATION: POLICY PAPER 1

 

ENABLING CONVERGENCE AT THE GRASSROOTS:

RESTORING THE LIVES AND LIVELIHOODS OF COASTAL COMMUNITIES

1. INTRODUCTION:  TSUNAMI AND ITS DEVASTATING EFFECT

A powerful ‘Great Earthquake’, which had its epicenter in Sumatra on 26 December 2004 with a degree of 8.9 on Richter scale, set off massive ocean waves called Tsunami of huge magnitude. In nature and scale it was an unprecedented event causing colossal destruction. The damage caused by the Tsunami is beyond imagination in the shorelines across South and South East Asia. The death toll reported as on 21 January 2005 was over 2,00,000 across the region while thousands of the people are missing. Indonesia was the worst affected country. In the disaster, in Srilanka and India more than 40,000 people were reported killed.

In India, the Tamil Nadu coast and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands took the brunt of the killer waves. Nearly 9775 people are killed by the Tsunami in India of which 7,932 deaths were reported from the coastal villages of Nagapattanam, Cuddalore, Chennai, Kancheepuram and Nagercoil districts of Tamil Nadu. The remaining are from Pondicherry, Andaman & Nicobar and Vishakapatnam, Prakasam and East Godavari districts in Andhra Pradesh. Nagapattanam district is the worst hit in Tamil Nadu.

The damage includes loss of lives, houses, boats, fishing nets, livestock, household articles, damage to the standing crops and agricultural fields etc. Nearly 8,000 persons were killed in the villages of Tamilnadu and majority of them are fisher folk. Children are the most affected in the disaster and many have become orphans. Besides, the intrusion of the seawater has severely affected the standing crops such as groundnut, paddy, cashew nut, coconut etc. in the agricultural fields of the coastal villages besides deteriorating the quality of the soil rendering them uncultivable without reclamation. The groundwater has also been affected in these areas. Those whose livelihoods depend on primary activities like fishery or faming were also severely affected. Trading community is one such community.  Common infrastructure such as electric poles, drinking water systems, bridges, schools, hospitals, community hall etc. have also been damaged or destroyed. Many people, fisher folk in particular have lost their employment at least temporarily due to this calamity. Majority of the fishermen are neither interested nor able to undertake other livelihood activities since they are not aware or have requisite skill of the vocations other than fishing. Many people were psychologically affected due to tsunami.

2   RELIEF INITIATIVES TOWARDS TSUNAMI VICTIMS

2.1 Overwhelming Response from the Civil Society as relief support

The history of our time witnessed a great public awakening to help the tsunami victims here and also in other parts of the world. The contributions of civil society in cash and kind forced some western governments to enhance their relief packages.  Local people rushed with help to all the tsunami affected areas. The contributions include food, clothes, blankets, water, medicine, biscuits, consumables, school bags, note books, groceries, cash etc. Beyond that many people visited the affected areas and worked as volunteers in cleaning the streets, clearing the debris, constructing the temporary shelters and in such other activities. Along with this, the coastal communities who lost their livelihoods and beloved ones received great warmth and emotional support from the community. Tsunami victims also thankfully acknowledged the support they received from the local communities, Non Governmental Organizations, government and the national and international donor agencies.   

2.2 Relief Initiatives by Government and NGOs

Though the destruction of lives and livelihoods were unprecedented in scale in these parts of the country, the state and central governments commenced their relief activities in a fast and effective manner. NGOs and government have done commendable job in ensuring speedy relief distribution and to an extent addressing equitable supply to the needy. The state government has deployed a special relief coordination cell in the affected areas comprising senior IAS officers. These teams worked creatively to enhance the quality of the relief supply and restoring the living conditions in the villages. The relief camps provided a temporary shelter and food for the families that were severely affected for over a week in many places. Water, electricity and health departments did a tremendous work in the field to restore basic public amenities in the villages. It was heartening to find that in the place of the collapsed transformers new ones were erected within a week of the disaster.   International NGOs also played an instrumental role in the spheres of relief supply and distribution and resources to aid the victims.

Temporary shelters were established by government and NGOs in some of the villages for those who had lost their houses. Now, the focus is on restoring the livelihoods of the local communities and establishing permanent shelter for them. Although a lot is being done, the extent of the tragedy is such that there is a greater need for many players to work together to rebuild the affected communities and restore their livelihoods. Hence, there arises the need to create convergence and synergy in the rehabilitation efforts. The state and NGOs need to collaborate further to ensure equity in relief and rehabilitation, addressing the gaps and to build community initiatives to take up long term developmental and conservation needs of the coastal communities.  

3. SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS: EMERGING GROUND REALITIES

Majority of the life supporting needs of the affected communities were taken care. Damage assessments have been prepared for almost all the villages, though revision is taking place continuously. The compensation packages have been announced in several places and have released in a few places. Temporary shelters were put up in some places. Activities related to restoration of livelihoods were started in a few places. In few villages, fishermen ventured in to sea for fishing. School children started attending school. Relief support is provided by many NGOs. As we mentioned earlier, public amenities like electricity, water and transportation have resumed close to the pre tsunami situation.

On the flip side fishermen show reluctance in many villages to venture in to the sea. The reasons attributed for the same include the severely damaged boatyards, fishermen’s request to replace their damaged boats, engines and nets with new ones and the fear of using the repaired boats. The least attention is given to the crop loss and the salinity of the farming lands due to sea water intrusion. Sea water intrusion problem is acute in many villages and the farm lands were affected to the distance of 2 kilometers from the coastal areas. In these places, NGOs like DHAN Foundation initiated work related to soil reclamation, desilting the drainage channels and subsequently plan to restore agriculture. In a few places, some farmers are reluctant to join the soil reclamation program due to the reason that if their lands reclaimed by the NGO before they are adequately compensated by the government, they may lose the compensation from the government. There is a need expressed by people to speed up initiatives like construction of permanent shelters.

To sum up, the immediate priority should be restoring their livelihoods by helping them in all aspects required including psychological counseling wherever required. This process will get momentum only when the government compensates the victims adequately with respect to their crop loss and the loss of other means of their livelihoods like nets and boats.   

The activities like cleaning the villages, clearing the debris, establishing basic public amenities and relief distribution were done reasonably fast though a great amount of confusion prevailed in each phase. To the large extent, NGOs and the government are working in isolation and not in the partnership mode since there is no effective coordination system in place. The district administration allocated one or two villages to each NGO based on their demand. This process was also done in an adhoc basis. Governments’ orders on NGOs participation and shelters construction were perceived restrictive, one-sided and not in keeping with the spirit of partnership. Though this is an opportune time to freeze the families to be supported for shelter and livelihoods, there is no clarity at the grass root level since government is yet to decide on the extent and number of families in each village. The way out for government is making a true partnership with NGOs and freezing the extent of compensation and the allocation of roles to various stakeholders for ensuring immediate and ‘anchored action’ in each village.       

4. CONCEPT OF PARTNERSHIP

The success of the restoration of shelter, livelihoods and habitat would solely depend on the active participation of the coastal communities in the rehabilitation program.  Experiences everywhere including Gujarat have shown that without people’s ownership effective rehabilitation is next to impossible. Hence it is very important to involve civil society in every phase of the rehabilitation. We in DHAN believe that people based processes will make the restoration of shelter and livelihoods program more efficient and effective.  However, active participation of the community is possible only through NGO-GO partnership. Hence, government has to make multiple levels of partnership with the spectrum of organizations to implement rehabilitation program better.

Partnership requires sharing of roles and responsibilities in an equitable basis based on the core competencies of the participating organizations. Roles, responsibilities and rights needs to be defined clearly. Accountability parameters also established with verifiable indicators. Complementarity, synergy, trust and enabling will be the basic principles in which enduring partnerships will be built.   

The collaboration in the true sense among the state government, NGOs and the other relevant institutions like academia would help the processes of rehabilitation and restoration of livelihoods would be efficient and effective in the grassroots. The convergence of the grassroot efforts of various players, mutual respect and recognition for the roles each player envisage in the scenario of unfolding development challenges would be the need of the hour in reinforcing partnerships for enabling equity. We believe the following areas would support forging the grassroot coalitions on rehabilitation, conservation and development.

4.1 Focus on ‘Integrated Action’ rather than ‘Adoption’ of villages

Rather than facilitating ‘adoption’ of villages by various NGOs, corporate houses and others ‘integrated action’ can be promoted by forging creative partnerships in the affected villages based on the core competencies of the organizations to ensure the cardinal principles of equity and creativity. If some NGOs and Corporate houses wish to focus in a particular village gaps needs to be identified and it can be complemented by other NGOs. Since this is an opportunity to organize the coastal communities for the long term development, NGOs with long term commitment should be encouraged to work in all the villages.      

4.2 Focus on facilitating ‘Implementation’ rather than restrictive ‘regulations’

Rather than ‘regulating’ the rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts through Government Orders, focus should be given on ‘implementation’ by setting up a vibrant consultation and review mechanisms and processes in the field level involving all stakeholders. Regulation through GOs restricts the capacity and creativity of the NGOs to come out with a modern and technologically sound shelter or livelihoods reconstruction programs. Through consultation and rigorous monitoring on implementation the basic objectives can be attained effectively.

4.3 Focus on creating Multiple Partnership Models

Multiple models of partnership can be promoted to address various issues in rehabilitation, conservation and development. Based on the core competencies and resource capabilities of the NGOs, their participation in specific dialogue meetings and implementation programs can be decided. A state level rehabilitation policy committee can be established involving the spectrum of institutions based on their core competencies and interest areas to come out with a sound rehabilitation policy. This mechanism would facilitate forging effective partnerships at the villages, designing creative livelihoods support program and to consider series of bio conservation measures in the West Coast. DHAN would be willing to be part of the committee. At the district and specific villages also planning and implementation monitoring committees can be set up to enable participation of various stakeholders.

5. FRAMEWORK ON RELIEF, RESTORATION OF LIVELIHOODS AND HABITAT

From our field experiences we found that the phases of relief, restoration of livelihoods and reconstruction of habitat are distinct phases yet overlapping in nature. Though the attributes like roles and responsibilities of collaborating partners can be well established it requires intensive consultation and collaboration among the government, NGOs, corporate houses, research agencies, academia and civil society to address short, medium and long term needs and demands of the coastal communities.

Table: 1 Frame work on Relief, Restoration of Livelihoods and of Habitat

6. DHAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON RELIEF AND REHABILITATION INITIATIVES     

6.1 Addressing Debts of Tsunami Affected People including Micro Finance Groups:

Tsunami affected the lives and livelihoods of fishermen, farmers, traders and many members of various micro finance groups. Fisher men, farmers and traders have availed loans from the banks, cooperatives, fishermen societies and from moneylenders. SHGs availed loans from commercial banks, Micro Finance Institutions/NGOs under the SHG- Bank linkage program. Productive assets like boats, nets, livestock etc in these families were created from this financial support. Since these assets were destroyed due to tsunami they become assetless and indebted.     Hence as part of the relief initiative compensation should be provided by government and banks to the extent of debts to the affected families and SHGs and the moratorium can be fixed for resuming repayment. The SHGs should be given the option of retaining this amount at the group level as common fund available for their ongoing lending operations.

6.2 Psychological Rehabilitation program

The government with the help of psychiatrists may come out with a coordinated program on psychological rehabilitation to all the affected families. Different packages can be devised for children, women, orphans, destitute persons, fishermen and farmers. These programs can be facilitated by NGOs and no village should be left out. District Administration would review the program implementation and feed back to be given to the organization if any changes suggested. Train the Trainers (TOT) should be organized to the volunteers so that they can conduct effective psychological rehabilitation programs to the needy.

6.3 Livelihoods Restoration Policy

6.3.1 Targeting Affected Communities:

Broadly three kinds of communities were affected due to tsunami namely fishing, farming and trading communities. The needs and demands of each of the communities are different. While freezing the livelihoods program support the specific needs of the communities need to be taken in to consideration. The trading and farming communities should not be neglected while devising the livelihoods restoration program. The role of NGOs would be crucial to ensure ‘inclusion’ of such communities.

6.3.2 Reskilling/ modernizing/ conserving the fishery and farming Livelihoods

This is an opportunity to modernize, restructure, and rejuvenate the livelihoods of the fishing and farming communities. Eco friendly fishing practices can be introduced. If some families wish to shift to other kinds of livelihood activities one or two members in each family can be given opportunities to pursue other complimentary or new activities. In farming activities also new practices, new seeds and varieties can be introduced. Reskilling needs to be done in such cases. This can be done to both fishing and farming communities.

6.3.3 Cash for Work Program to generate employment

Coastal communities need to build assets in addition to meeting their survival needs. Since it may take time for complete restoration of their livelihoods a complementary employment generation program can be implemented in the affected districts in the basis of cash for work program. Under this program renovation of tanks and ponds, construction of roads and houses and other such works can be taken up. This would facilitate the affected families to create assets and an early return to normalcy.

6.4 Permanent Shelter    

As far as permanent shelter is concerned government has to come out with the shelter norms taking in to consideration coastal zone regulations, tsunami, flood and cyclone proof designs, financial support package, and the ongoing monitoring system to monitor the implementation at the field level on adherence of norms set by the government in the above aspects.  Land titles can be issued in the name of the beneficiaries of the rehabilitation programme and it can be joint title in the name of the husband and wife wherever possible.  The list of beneficiaries under housing and livelihoods support program needs to be freezed and while doing so consultation should be done with the village committee or Panchayat in order to ensure inclusion of all affected families.

6.5 Habitat Reconstruction Policy

New habitats can be constructed with adequate facilities like school, small dispensary, sanitation, village information center, cement pavements, playground, and the fish and farm produce markets.     Focus needs to be given to build the community infrastructure on various themes like savings and credit, renovation of village tanks and farm ponds, fish vendors, fisher men and farmers. Bio conservation movements can be facilitated with the facilitation of NGOs. Village information centers can be organized in a way supporting employment generation, providing market information, and also acting as early warning system on floods, cyclones and tsunami. 

6.6 Comprehensive Research on Marine Resources Management and the changes in the sea

A detailed study needs to be done on the marine management in the East Coast of Tamil nadu and the resources that include flora and fauna in the post tsunami situation. The assessment can be done on the availability of marine resources and the measures to promote optimum utilization of the same in a sustainable manner. The organizations like Anna University (Marine Technology Department), IIT, Chennai and Ocean Technology Institute can be explored to further work on these areas. 

6.7 Establishment of Coastal Zone Regulation Authority 

The government has to establish the coastal zone regulation authority and has to come out with comprehensive guidelines on coastal zone protection and conservation of bio reserves. While forming such guidelines and authority considerate views of civil society needs to be considered. The genuine issues rose regarding the bio ecological resources and the authority needs closer scrutiny.

7. CONCLUSION

The rehabilitation and reconstruction measures are both medium and long term in nature. Conservation of marine resources should be the core component of any medium and long term development program of the west coast areas.  With true partnership mode, unfolding challenges of rehabilitation at the grassroots should be addressed. Proactive and creative policies of the government would help to build the new generation coastal communities. Civil Society movements can be strengthened through vibrant multifaceted partnerships among the state, NGOs, corporate houses, research institutions and academia towards ecological conservation and building eco friendly villages.