Post tsunami in India, empty promises from the Government
Rome (AsiaNews) A year on from the tsunami, survivors of the disaster in Tamil Nadu and Andamane have received "more words than concrete action" from the government. They are also in urgent need of a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, given the " widespread panic each time sea water risks reaching their tents". Fr. Anthony Thota, coordinator of the tsunami relief campaign for the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (Pime) in Tamil Nadu, told AsiaNews by phone of the insufficiencies in government aid to the people in the region. The missionary also speaks of the tragedy of these people, completely "forgotten" by the International community. Both India and Indonesia yesterday defined the report's findings as "unfounded" flatly denying its conclusions.
A UN sponsored report published February 1st on the situation in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailandia and the Maldives post tsunami has once again brought world attention to ongoing problems. The study reveals government oversights in providing housing, adequate sanitary facilities or jobs to the victims, who are frequently discriminated against in aid distribution.
Fr. Thota, present on the round for over a year, maintains that "local authorities continue to make promises, which they never keep". "I have visited many villages he says and while a few have seen the benefits of project work, the rest seem to have been forgotten by the government".
"In the country side not far from the sea border, for example at Kalpagam, people are still living in makeshift tents and are still waiting for the government to tell them when they will have permanent housing". The priest tells of how the people tired and disillusioned appeal to the missions to help them build their homes.
According to Fr. Thota the reasons behind these difficulties are "corruption and the need to finance future election campaigns, with money destined for tsunami relief". It must also be remembered that "India refused the international aid offered in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami".
But the government is not alone in ignoring the needs of the displaced peoples. "In the beginning notes the missionary when you saw the bodies lying on the street donations poured in, now people have forgotten about these places and even many NGO's have left without completing projects that they set out to do ". "These poor are in more need of help now than they were in the months immediately following the disaster".
The priest confirms that the population of the Andamana islands are living in precarious sanitary conditions. "Here dysentery is rampant, and not only there are also many cases of malnutrition and malaria". But psychological assistance seems to be the greatest urgency at the moment : "The peoples primary fear is not lack of food or medicine, their greatest fear is to re-live December 26 2004". Thota tells that when sea water rises along the coast coming with a close margin to the tents, " panic spreads and everybody wants to run away". No one feels safe he continues they are constantly on the move and there is a lack of comprehensive psychological rehabilitation programmes.
The report also speaks of discrimination in aid distribution which affects above all women and the poor. In India there is even discrimination among the victims themselves. The missionary recalls how "in the tents were we sheltered victims, often it was the people themselves who marginalized the women and dahlits, who spontaneously moved on in search of another place to stay".
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