Tsunami- Relief and Restoring Livelihoods & Habitats

DHAN Foundation Initiatives - Update 21

_{Reaching the Un reached}

 

The 20th update was on DHAN’s initiatives in identifying alternate sustainable livelihood support systems for the vulnerable community in the tsunami affected areas in Tamil Nadu.  In this update the focus is on DHAN’s intervention with the marginal community that got limited attention and support after the tsunami.

 
The tsunami invasion has devastated the livelihoods of both fisher and farming community in the coastal areas of Tamilnadu. Though the response from the civil society and the state was overwhelming in terms of providing relief and rehabilitation to the affected communities, there were a few marginal sections among the affected community to whom the rehabilitation and even relief is yet to reach or got delayed. These communities were basically wage labours in fishing and farming, the fishing community involved in backwater fishing and those who do blind fishing or hand fishing in backwaters.

DHAN’s field staffs were able to reach such marginal communities and initiate the process of livelihood restoration. This update focuses on two such initiatives.

_{DHAN intervention in Jonaskuppam} 

Jonaskuppam is located at a distance of 36 km south of Chennai on the East Coast Road located next to Kovalamkuppam. Kovalamkuppam or Kovalam popularly called is a famous tourist attraction next to Mahabalipuram in Kanchipuram District. There are about 280 families in Jonaskuppam and all of them belong to minority community. About 177 families are directly involved in fishing in this hamlet. In the adjacent Kovalamkuppam there are about 357 families of the majority community and are all involved in fishing. The main approach to Jonaskuppam is thru Kovalamkuppam only. Though the hamlets were located next to each other there is a vast difference in terms of basic fishing implements in use, their life style and economy. The pre-tsunami infrastructure of both the fishing hamlet is given below :

 

_{Table – 1: Pre tsunami infrastructure in Kovalamkuppam and Jonaskuppam}

 

 

Due to the invasion of Tsunami the craft and gear got severely damaged. The livelihood of the fisher community in both the hamlets came to a stand still. The loss due to tsunami in both the hamlets is given in the following table.

 

_{Table – 2 : Impact of tsunami on the life and livelihoods in Kovalam and Jonaskuppam}

 

 

The main loss is on Catamarans (wooden logs tied together) which is used mainly by the economically weaker sections among the fisher group. The loss of lives due to tsunami as reported is 7 (Male–3, Female-2, Children-2) in Kovalamkuppam.

Immediately after the tsunami, voluntary organisations started intervening and providing relief and rehabilitation to the community. The intervention started with providing relief and then on livelihood

rehabilitation. During this stage the majority community in Kovalamkuppam got the attention of most of the organisations and hence took advantage of the relief and rehabilitation assistance provided. But since the minority community in Jonaskuppam is to be reached only after crossing Kovalam most of the relief and rehabilitation support drained in Kovalamkuppam itself and very limited percolated to Jonaskuppam. Hence the minority community were under severe stress immediately after the invasion of tsunami. When DHAN intervened in the fishing hamlet during the last week of January 2005 a rapid need assessment was carried out to assess the basic needs of the community in both the hamlets. During this process the disparity came out quite clearly and hence the rehabilitation was focussed on Jonaskuppam. At one point of time about 14 organizations involved in tsunami rehabilitation but supporting only the majority community. Based on the assessment DHAN mobilized relief materials to Jonaskuppam and the livelihood rehabilitation process also was initiated immediately. DHAN so far provided 48 new catamarans for a total cost of Rs. 8,04,200 supported by NOVIB Netherlands. The community contributed Rs. 50000 as their contribution and also provided the working space (temporary shed) for the carpenters to work on the catamarans. Also the community contributed the daily food for the carpenter. DHAN’s insistence on community contribution is mainly to ensure a participation and sense of ownership among the community.

_{Future Interventions Planned} 

DHAN organized the fishermen of the Muslim community in the form of Self Help Groups called Meenavar Kalanjiams. The amount contributed towards catamaran by the community will be given back to these groups as seed money that will be used as revolving fund within the members of each group. DHAN has planned to organise the women in the hamlet into Women Self Help Groups called Kalanjiams. The process of savings and credit will be initiated among the groups. Micro finance will support this marginal community to come out of the debt trap .

_{DHAN intervention in Ambedkar Nagar} 

Ambedkar Nagar is a small hamlet located in Kurinchipadi Block of Cuddalore district. It is located on the banks of Uppanar backwaters There are about 191 families belong to the marginal section of the community (Dalits). Their main source of livelihood is through fishing in Uppanar backwaters. Some of them also work as agriculture wage labours and as industrial wage labours in the nearby towns. During tsunami the raise in water level in the backwater has totally washed off the 15 catamarans with 60 Kg of nets. In addition huge amount of marine silt got transported and deposited in the backwaters making it un suitable for fishing. Among the worst affected are the community that were involved in blind fishing or hand fishing. They just sit in the knee deep water and search with bear hands in the backwater and catch whatever is available like crabs, prawn, small fishes etc., Radhakrishnan with his Wife Ammaponnu has to manage with meagre catch he gets after tsunami in the Uppanar backwaters The raise in water level in the backwater also entered the nearby agriculture fields increasing the salinity in the top soil. It has also spoiled the standing  crop. At present no support has reached this hamlet from any source. DHAN intervened in this hamlet and started establishing the livelihoods of this marginal community. With the support from NOVIB Netherlands catamarans have been provided to the backwater fishing community. The women were organised as Kalanjiams (Self Help Groups) and livelihood support activities such as back yard poultry and goat rearing has been provided.

_{Case Study} 
 

V.Radhakrishnan who belong to the marginal section resides in Ambedkar Nagar with his wife and 5 children. He is the only earning member for his family through fishing in backwaters. Earlier Radhakrishnan use to work as wage labour in the trawlers in the nearby Palaiyar village. With meager earnings he found it difficult to run his family and hence decided to go back to his native village (Ambedkarnagar). Before tsunami , Radhakrishnan goes for fishing in his catamaran at 10.30 PM and returns back at 4.30 AM and earns on an average Rs. 200 per day. During lean periods his earnings gets reduced drastically to Rs.100 a day. Due to tsunami he lost his craft (catamaran) and gear and now do fishing in a rented catamaran with old torn nets. As rent he has to part half his catch with the boat owner. Radhakrishnan has not been to school but he wants his children to go to school. Young looking Radhakrishnan does not even know his age or date of birth but is confident of getting back to his normal livelihoods provided he gets a catamaran with nets.

 

_{People organizations for sustaining development}
 

In the Tsunami affected coastal area, three major communities are existing and the same were affected much during the Tsunami disasters. There are Fishermen communities, the landless laboures are depending up on the other two communities. During the Relief work undertaken for the affected people, their basic needs were timely fulfilled and the common infrastructures were temporarily constructed to turn them in to normal life. Hundreds of NGO’sand other Institutions were involving and very successfully completed the relief works. After completion of relief works, Livelihoods restoration was the immediate need of the affected communities.

 

 DHAN’s approach to development is through the people organizations. It has experienced this approach successfully in rural, tribal and urban context. The same approach was followed in Tsunami affected coastal communities to restore their livelihoods. So, promotion of people organization was considered essential to organise the affected communities and enough focus was given to promote people organizations affected people.

 

_{Farmers association}

 

The affected farmers are organized in to Associations based on the proximity of the land holdings. Focus is given for organizing the small and marginal farmers who would occupy decision making space in these community organizations. These associations would bring in scale advantages to small farmers and there by lead to reduction in costs and increase in incomes. More over, they would anchor the technological interventions tried out in the areas and their horizontal spread. Steps have been taken to organize farmers association in the affected area and 246 farmers associations have been promoted in the affected villages through which 4551 families have been covered

 

_{Kalanjiam Women Association}

 

Poor women from Landless category and the fringe community are organized as self help groups for restoring their livelihoods. Mostly deserved families are taking part in these women self help groups. These groups are engaged in saving and credit activities from the day one itself and they access to credit for starting their own livelihood activities. DHAN Foundation has promoted 586 women self help groups covering 9927 poor families in the Tsunami affected Districts of Cuddalore, Nagapattinam, Karaikal and Pudukottai.

  

 _{Fishermen Association}

 

_{Fishermen Associations are promoted for resuming strengthening and sustaining the fishing livelihoods. So, all fishermen who were affected in Tsunami are organized as small associations consisting of 20-40 families in the same habitats. By this initiative, the scattered affected families are organized and they meet atleast once in a month. The village level Associations give opportunity to a poor fisherman attend the meeting and share their views. Now they have opportunity to move jointly to promote their livelihood and other facilities of their village. DHAN field teams have promoted 331 fisherman associations from 168 habitats in the coastal affected areas through which 5646 families have been organized in the people organisation.}

 

_{People Organization Details (April – August 2005)}

 

S.No	Name of the Region	Women SHG's		Fishermen Group		Farmer groups		Total
		No	Mem	No	Mem	No	Mem	No	Mem
1	Kanchipuram	0	0	164	2864	0	0	164	2864
2	Cuddalore	259	4640	58	948	59	1095	376	6683
3	Nagai I	194	2994	41	631	31	483	266	4108
4	Nagai II	74	1218	43	786	156	2973	273	4977
5	GOM	59	1075	51	417	0	0	110	1492
	Total	586	9927	357	5646	246	4551	1189	20124

 

As a whole, during the last five months, more than thousands people organisations have been promoted among the affected families of Tsunami and more than 20,000 families have been organized in these organizations. These are basic organizations which are going to undertake required livelihood activities for the betterment of the affected people. Still the promotions of people institutions are focusing for covering all affected people.

 

These three types of People Organizations are having similarity their functions. 

 

        They all are having meeting once in a month regularly and discuss their issues. Their views are pooled and plan for their development

• All people organizations are having financial transactions like savings and credit programmes

• Development activities are planned at the group meetings for the individuals and do implemented

• Strict group norms are framed among themselves, to regulate their functions smoothly

• Each group is maintaining books of accounts and having bank account for financial transactions.

• People decisions are respected and get in to action

• All financial support received from donor agencies for development activities are routed through these groups and the groups take decision on implementing activities

• All these groups are governed by the selected representatives of the respective groups and they have staff for looking after the group activities and other functions