SAHANIVASA

TSUNAMI REHABILITATION PROJECT FOR THE VICTIMS

 OF TADA MANDAL

SUBMITTED TO ASHA

 

Background:

 

On 26 December 2004, an earthquake occurred just off the coast of Sumatra and triggered a series of catastrophic waves, tsunami which affected countries around the Indian Ocean and went as far as Somalia.  At least 150,000 people have been killed and many millions left destitute and homeless. 

 

Those who have been most badly affected are the small fisher folk communities and small farmers who live on the coastal areas.  Many have lost family members and everything they own.  The fishing boats and fishing equipment which the fisher folk communities depend on for their livelihood were destroyed or badly damaged.  Salt water that was washed inland has destroyed large areas of arable land and crops.

 

The damage is worst in the Andaman Nicobar Islands, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Pondichery & Kerala. In all these stats of India, it is the fishing communities that have been hardest hit. Already struggling with poverty and an uncertain livelihood, they now find themselves completely destitute. Their dwellings are destroyed. Their boats, nets and livelihoods lost. Their families devastated;

 

India stood tall in Promise but failed to accomplish

 

In monetary terms the damage was estimated at about Rs. 115,440.91 millions – Rs.3429.69 millions in Andhra Pradesh, Rs.23,710.02 millions in Kerala, Rs.45,280.66 millions in Tamil Nadu , Rs.4660 millions in Pondichery and Rs. 38,360.56 millions in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

 

At a time when most of the Tsunami –hit countries affected were unable to come to terms with reality and launch relief and restoration works, India stood tall in taking concerted action of immediate relief and rehabilitation programme. The international community has also responded positively and entered into the relief and rehabilitation largely by NGO sector.

The   Prime Minister promises did not last beyond the effective relief. In other words AP State government & central also has failed to stand by their promises in rehabilitation. As a result community in the costal belt became unrest which has been presented from time to time against the government. If there is affected communities is able to comeback to the normal life, it is because of the sincere efforts of the community themselves along with the support generated by the NGO community in some pockets.

 

TSUNAMI A YEAR AFTER

 

 

One year later, what is the situation on the ground? How are the survivors rebuilding the lives? How effective have rehabilitation measures been? What more needs to be done?  Are the common questions raise in the minds of those concern for the victims.

 

 we  will not be  able to give answers on the situation of  entire community of victims ,but our interventions in chillakur  8 villages and Tada   6 villages of Nellure district  can very much speak of  their future of  hope, as they have done some concrete rehabilitation process  with the support generated from AID.

 

There are many more villages in Andhra  who  could not be fortunate enough to get access to  neither  NGO’s  nor govt support, still struggling to survive , deserve support.  Though Andhra has also affected very badly in terms of loss of livelihood resources(boats, nets and houses), comparatively less human damage then Tamilnadu. Hence the central govt and also NGO's  have made lot of efforts in  Tamilnadu, not much in Andhra. Particularly Andhra govt did not take up any rehabilitation till date as the issue became old in the view of govt.

 

 

Hence we  are approaching ASHA  for support.

 

 

Status of Tada mandal: It is located in  Tamilnadu state boarder ,down south of Andhra Pradesh state. 75% of the  geographical area of mandal is covered by Pulicat  natural  2nd  largest lake in  Andhra Pradesh. Edge of the lack is connection with the sea back water . There is great threat to the lake due to industrial pollution from Tamil nadu  and also encroachments by the rich people.   The people around the lake are fishing community  irrespective of the caste. Some dominant caste people always control the land. The tsunami has  affected the livelihood resources of these people due to damage of the boats and nets and houses. 

 

APVVU has been working with this community for the last five years. Since it is in the boarder of the state, the government did not pay attention to any form of rehabilitation. They also carry the blame of having record their names in both the states. Now at Tsunami time both the governments have  neglected them with the hope  that each other government will take care.

 

39 out of 56 villages have been very badly affected. APVVU volunteers have involved initially for relief and invited  NGOs to take up the rehabilitation. APVVU has contacts with only AID and through their support OF $100,000/- we have initiated rehabilitation in 8 villages  of Chillakur mandal and 6 villages of TADA mandal.  . Therefore we have invited CJWS an NGO has support in rehabilitation in 17 villages. The remaining 22 villages deserve support out of which we are proposing only 12 villages  which are very remote  and having lot of problems as they  are not much commented to the out side world.

 

The present project is planned for direct rehabilitation support of 1080 families in 12 villages and indirectly it also helps the entire fishing community of 56 villages to build their trade union.   If ASHA can not afford to support all the 12 villages they can be  support whatever is possible so that we can rehabilitate the victims accordingly. Depends on the resources we will  select the number of  villages to be supported. Hence we have proposed below village wise required grant. SAHANIVASA being long time partner of ASHA can implement the project through Andhra Pradesh Vyavasaya Vruthidarula Union-APVVU cadre. In order to strengthen the livelihood resources and also demand their due share from national economy, we will promote two community based organisations.,

1.      all the women in 12 villages will form a collective-  fisher women cooperative  to take control of the fish marketing

2.      Form  and strengthen the fish workers union to assertion their rights  and also develop the negotiation skills wit the govt  to access to all the govt resources.

 

 

Strategy for Project Intervention:

1.      Supply necessary Nylon threads for knitting  675 new nets to take care of the victims.

2.      support extend for 328 damaged huts to rebuilt

3.      support extend for 65 single women or women headed families  for fish vending

4.      Strengthening the fish workers association in each of the village

5.      Provide them counselling through meeting and individual interaction.

6.      Provide necessary moral support for their collective bargaining with the government.

7.      Get titles over their houses

8.      Organise them to demand the state to provide pakka (strong concrete building) housing program in the Tsunami destructed area  ( at the earlier habitation place)

9.      Support extend to demand the state for replacement with new boats

 

 

 

 

 

 Details of victims of TADA  Mandal of Nellore district deserve support as they are not covered by any other group or govt

 

no.

name of the

 village

total

fami

lies

caste wise families

victims

boats damaged

loss

 of nets

damage houses

women groups

formed

support for nets

rs 4000

hosues

Rs.1500

Fish vending

2500

total required

 

 

SC

ST

BC

OC

1

 Balaji Kuppam

187

27

32

49

27

135

24

146

25

12

400,000(100)

37,500

50,000

487,500

2

Chinna Mambattu

135

21

22

39

 

82

22

87

27

7

240,000(60)

40,500

25,000

305,500

3

N.M. Kandirga

94

11

28

24

 

63

25

94

21

5

240,00060)

31,500

25,000

296,500

4

Konduru

79

 

15

35

 

50

23

51

32

4

160,000(40)

48,000

25,000

233,000

5

Anda Gundala

92

 

35

51

 

86

32

68

15

6

200,000(50)

22,500

25,000

247,500

6

Chenigunta

105

24

54

39

7

124

17

96

23

9

280,000(70)

34,500

25,000

339,500

7

Pedda Mambattu

113

21

41

30

10

102

12

92

28

7

280,000(70)

42,000

25,000

347,000

8

Errukam

98

 

35

30

9

74

18

72

32

6

240,000(60)

48,000

25,000

313,000

9

Perriyavettu

140

19

40

50

 

109

26

103

12

7

320,000(80)

18,000

25,000

363,000

10

Balakrishnapuram

210

15

100

32

23

170

24

55

23

3

160,000(40)

34,500

25,000

219,500

11

Gollalamulugu

87

 

28

13

 

41

22

37

26

3

100,000(25)

39,000

25,000

164,000

12

Kasimgani Kandriga

67

 

15

29

 

44

9

56

22

3

160,000(40)

33,000

25,000

218,000

 

 

1407

138

445

421

76

1080

254

957

328

72

2,780,000(695)

429,000

325,000

3,534,000

S.T: Schedule Tribes (indigenous people) depending on fishing; SC: Scheduled Caste (dalits) Besta: Fisher people.

 

1.      Boats repair:  we will not support as they have already  got  loan with high rate of interest from the fish business persons  for repair   with the condition that these people  to sell the fish for 50% of the market rate and pay 60% interest on the loan.

 

2.      Support for  nets : Very few families  got nets in the same manner for boats repair and they need support to get the back to normal life. Hence  we propose Rs4000 /-  worth of material  to nit the nets per family. Generally each family needs   4 to 5 varieties of nets  for fishing  because, one net will be used only one type of fish . No one kind of  fish will be available all through the year. In other words each type of fish will available for few months and  different type of fish will be harvested in different seasons. Hence they need  different types of nets. What we do here is that, we will supply different types of net materials for each village depends on their need so that hey can collectively share the nets among themselves. Further ,  buying new net from the shop is very costly. Hence , they will be encouraged to buy the material so that the youth can be trained to knit the nets, which will work out very cheap.(1/4th of the market  ready made net)

 

 

3.      Support for damaged houses: the victims of tsunami , even before they could get any support form the govt for housing, they are again victims by the recent – October and November floods. They are denied to get the support for two reasons at the time of tsunami- i.e. they are living in the boarder of Tamil nadu and Andhra. Each of the govt  blame that they are   registered their names in each other state. . Secondly other than fishing caste(pattapu) , the govt has not considered tribals(yanadi) and Dalits as the fishing community even though their livelihood is only fishing. Because of thee reasons they are given least importance.  Hence their damaged houses  did not generate any compensation. Hence we propose for Rs1500./- per family so that they will buy local wood and thatched roof material to erect the huts till they get the govt houses through  collective lobby  with the govt.

 

4.      Fish vending:  In every village there are single women or women headed families who can not go fishing in the sea. If we support these women for one time grant of Rs5000/-  they will harvest for buying fish in the village and sell in the local market. This way we can stop the exploitation of fish business men and also support single women to survive o  their own resources. Hence we have budgeted  five persons for each village

 

RequestED financial support:

Sno

Particulars

No. of Units

Unit cost  Rs.

Request

Rehabilitation

 

 

 

 

Support for nets  knitting

695

4000

2,780,000

 

Support for damaged houses

328

 

1500

429,000

 

 

Support for fish vending

65

5000

325,000

 

 

Travel & Transportation of materials

 

 

20,000

 

Formation of   women credit cooperative society

 

Conducting monthly meetings or 72 leaders

72 groups Covering 1080 families.

1500 per meeting  X 12 months

18,000

 

Printing of pass books, registration  and stationary

Pass books 1000

Ledger, cash book, day books ,Receipt books etc

 

8,000

 

Review and planning with the community leaders once in a month for a day

50 leaders  to build union

Rs. 1500/- per meeting

18,000

 

 

 

 

 

Project Facilitation

 

 

 

 Salaries of  an organizer

for 1 year

 

3,500 per month

42,000

 

organiser Travel & moped fuel and maintenance

Rs.1500/- per month

18,000

 

District coordinator travel  & monitoring

1500 per month

18,000

 

Office rent and maintenance in Tada

1

1000 per month

12,000

 

Documentation, Phones and communication

10,000

 

Accounts and audit

 

10,000

 

Total Rs.

 

 

3,708,000

 

USD @ 44 approximately

 

 

84,270

 

 

WE REQUEST ASHA TO SUPPORT THIS PROJECT TO REHABILITATE THE FISHING COMMUNITY OF TADA MANDAL.

 

 

 

 

 

P.CHENNAIAH

SAHANIVASA