The Work

Seeing the need for relief in a human-made disaster like submergence caused by a large dam, just as in the case of a natural disaster like Earthquake, the Bombay Sarvodaya Friendship Centre has begun providing relief to the people most affected by submergence and are stranded without any relief or rehabilitation. Tarpaulin sheets to provide a temporary shelter in the beating rains for those whose houses get washed away, foodgrains are needed most urgently for those adivasi families that have not gotten any compensation or very little crop-loss compensation ad show lands have been submerged for several year with no sight of rehabilitation. Medical help is needed for people being bitten by snakes, drinking the dirty back waters of the dam, and for the many young babies and children who have to cope with the displacement on steep slippery slopes of the valley. This is not just a problem that can be handled by one organization and another group the Narmada Nav Nirman Abhiyan is similarly working on implementing a relief program. This relief program for those most severely affected by submergence is called the Jansahyog program because we are appealing to the people and civil society at large to help by making donations of about Rs5000-6000 that can provide food-grains to a family for 6 months or purchase tarpaulins to shelter families or provide medical and other needed relief help. Trusts willing to make a donation can also help with relief for families, even hamlets or villages.

A coordination committee has been set up in Mumbai with people from organizations interested in volunteering to help provide the relief. Preliminary data is being made on the scale of Jansahyog needed and the exact damage done would be clear only when the biggest floods of the monsoons come. The food-grain relief will be organized in several batches the first at the beginning of monsoons in July for those adivasi families that have faced the maximum brunt of land-loss due to submergence without any or sufficient compensation for crop-loss and are in a very needy state. This will just be sufficient to last the monsoon months. It will be done in the submergence villages of Akrani and Akkalkua tehsils of Nandurbar district, Maharashtra and Alirajpur tehsil of Madhya Pradesh. This will be followed by a second round and third round of food-grain distribution after the damage by the monsoon floods is known as well as taking into account any relief and rehabilitation the government may provide.

Since the tribal people have a strong community feeling it is crucial that the relief is done in a manner that is consistent with their thinking as there will be more needy families and less needy families depending on the location of their lands. Thus they will be involved at the village level in distributing the relief along with volunteers of BSFC.

It has been estimated that about Rs 5000 to Rs 6000 are needed for providing food-grains for a family for 6 months. The lowest costs of reasonably good quality grain that we can procure from Nimad region of MP is as follows (we have given a range to include the lowest costs in maharshtra on the right-side):

Grain and Pulses	Per Quintal (100 Kg)
Sorgaum/Jowhar	Rs 600-Rs 675
Maize/Corn	Rs 525-Rs650
Chowli	Rs 1150-Rs 1700
Moong	Rs 1400-Rs 2100
Urad	Rs 1200-Rs 1700

To keep the costs low it is our thinking that no oil or sugar will be provided, just the grain, pulse and mirchi. This thinking may get slightly revised based on the feed-back after first distribution, but the basic idea is to keep the costs as low as possible.

It takes about Rs 2500-3000 to transport 5 tonnes (5000 Kg) by truck from the Nimad region to the valley. There will be diesel expenses of the boat to take it across the river that is nearly a kilometer wide now.

While it is estimated that the average food-grain cost is Rs 5000-6000 per family the exact amount each family gets would depend on the need and the land lost in submergence by it. We hope that between the groups implementing the relief program, we can provide Tarpaulin sheets to all the families whose houses get submerged for providing temporary shelters. Depending on the scale, relief camps may also be needed for people to stay and the food-grains may need to be distributed in these camps as well. Currently the Jansahyog relief program is only for the adivasi people who are affected.

Ideology and Jansahyogis:

The Narmada valley struggle championed by the NBA has been successful in making the people fight non-violently for their rights and resist injustice. It is the governments that are responsible for rehabilitating all the families as ordered by the Narmada Tribunal Award that has been upheld on paper by the Supreme Court. This continues to remain the ideology of the people.

Regardless of our position on large dams, if we agree that the minimum that must be done is to rehabilitate all the displaced people by providing alternate agricultural lands prior to submergence as is the law in the Narmada case, then if the governments and courts fail to do this then the onus falls on us the people. We live in a democracy and the governments and Courts are but our representatives. If they fail then we should set the high standards of morality for them by acting by at least providing the immediate humanitarian relief that we can and encouraging them to follow up with the rehabilitation that they should.

It is with this aim that we hope to link families in cities, those of us who have running tap water and electricity at the push of a switch, with affected families in the submergence villages so we can understand each other better and stand for one another. We hope the people from cities who contribute to support families or volunteers from trusts and organizations like AID can correspond with some families and even visit them as they struggle for their rights, lands and survival.

Even if the governments finally fail the displaced people of the tribal communities have a resilience by which they can survive, though paying costs of their lives in some of the families. It is also the aim of this program to recognize this and not interfere with the natural survival instincts of the adivasi people by which they will somehow find a way. Thus only the bare minimum relief to few most needy families facing the maximum damage is planned so they can survive the immediate monsoon and if required the year, while they demand the rehabilitation due to them or find a way of their own if the government turns a deaf ear. Despite the scale of displacement without rehabilitation for the full worst case once in 100-year floods being at the 10,000 family level (adivasi and farming families) at this height, the Jansahyog program doesn’t aim to provide relief at this scale.