Privileges of the Under Privileged

I get to meet some of the very poor people in this bustling little city of Dehradun. As my auto-rickshaw stops at the signal in Prince Chowk, we get some of the very poor filthy clad women and children lining up to collect the change one may get from the auto-rickshaw driver. Again similar thing happens at Khenak Chowk, hardly 50 meters from the four star Pacific Hotel. I see these people living on pavements with half-naked children, getting wet in the rain, with one of them having severe wound. There is another lady who lives almost opposite of the Tirupati restaurant on the Rajpur road where the pavement from the famous St.Joseph's Academy ends and takes a curve to the left. I saw her fighting with the dogs today, as the dogs were fighting for her food. I just shooed away one of the dogs and came away.

On return to my room in the guest house, I began to wonder - we are talking about rights based approach, human dignity, vulnerability of people who have been affected by the disaster, and those in risk, people who find it difficult to yearn their daily bread because there are no religious pilgrimages. But what is the status of these people? Do they really count in a society where even half a plate of rice without any curry or vegetables (just plain) comes at 15 rupees ! Often it shatters one's heart, but some times, over a long period of looking at these social evils, the heart becomes harder, and we take it in its own stride. Someone had said, "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it an appearance of being right!". 

This is what has happened to society....it happens to economy....it happens to humans. Alas, how can the under-privileged speak of privileges. They can just keep mum till they drop dead. Privileges? Those are for the super rich who visit the affected population for two hours and get reported with photographs in English, Hindi and other vernacular newspapers for three days! Long live the privileged class of India!

Fighting the Gods

The disaster that has taken place in the state of Uttarakhand makes me continually wonder, "Are we fighting the Gods?" This state is also known as "Devbhumi", which means, Land of Gods. The tourist spots were closer to the plains - Nainithal, Musoorie and Dehradun, to name a few. The dwelling of Gods were mostly in the snow-clad mountains. People traveled on spiritual journey, not expecting to return back home! Yes, I am correct. People did not expect to return back home, when they were on spiritual journey. The other day one of my companions, Ms. Divya Gupta said that still people in some clans conduct a kind of funeral service for those planning to leave on pilgrimage to some of these places like Kedarnath, Badrinath and Gangotri. That is because, they thought that these were on their journey to moksha (roughly translated as "liberation" or "heaven") and if they return, good; if they do not, they have reached moksha. 

Picture courtesy: La Journal International

But, what have we done with the land? We have tried to behave exactly as do in the plains. We want high ways so that cars can ply at over 50 miles on hours on the steep mountains, we wish to have uninterrupted power supply and water supply at our door steps. What about uninterrupted tele-connectivity? We get upset if our mobile phones don't work --- and we blame the tele-service provider for poor connectivity. Young people move in hundreds and thousands only to provide service to the hundreds of thousands who flock to these and other temples, throwing away all along plastics from the fast food, cool drinks, water bottles, and packets from several brands of chips. The vehicles carry pilgrims and those on pleasure trips, leaving enough of CO2 that in their whole life time cannot undo. It is simply a tourism, centered around religious faith of people. Over exploitation of Gods for commercial reasons have probably been one of the biggest errors of all times. But religion and commerce are strange bed fellows - they openly speak against one another, but cannot live without the other.

The concept of development cannot be the same for all geographical locations, at all time. There is a need to leave many of these hills to remain just the dwelling places of gods and divine men. Remember that the Gods have remained intact in spite of the disaster, although the disaster killed thousands and destroyed much of livelihoods and buildings. Carrying worldly life of the plains to the spiritual life of the mountains is a dangerous proposition. God's will hit us back!

After all, all of us climbing up the mountain to seek God is not required, and not the right thing! One must truly be holy to climb up the mountains to see the face of God. I thought of ending it up with the first few verses of Psalm 24 from the Bible which is aptly titled, "The Earth is the Lord's":

The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness,
The world and those who dwell therein.
2 For He has founded it upon the seas,
And established it upon the waters.

3 Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol, (my comment: money, power: new age idols)
Nor sworn deceitfully.
5 He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

Time the Compensation

One of the questions I have begun to ask in this assignment in Uttarakhand state is: Is the timing of giving compensation to families who have lost their houses "the right time"? Let us examine the facts. 

Usually after a disaster, immediately there is a hue and cry for compensating the loss. The governments, in order to get a political mileage and to silence the voices, immediately announce a compensation package, and at times it is even revised to increase the earlier package. In the case of Uttarakhand, each family that had lost its house got 200,000 rupees. Indeed, although the disaster had taken place on 16 - 17 June, during my visit to Pithoragarh district closer to the Nepal-Tibetan border with India as early as in the first week of July, I found that the families had been compensated. I was pleasantly surprised at that time the compensation has reached the community and people are happy that they received the money without any delay.

But this is the rainy season. People do not have much work. Most of the affected families are living on the generosity of the government which comes through free or subsidized food and some benefits given by the non-profit organizations. Today, that is about two months from the disaster, how much of that 200,000 is left with the families to reconstruct their houses? In any case with the rains continuing, the house reconstruction cannot start before October. So, how much will be left on the first day when the deprived family needs money? People eat, purchase clothes, pay for medicines, they travel and buy some utensils etc. with the same money.

This takes me to the first question: Is the timing of giving compensation to families who have lost their houses "the right time"? Or, should the "housing compensation be better timed?". One option I would propose is the following (an idea I shared with a few and later I wrote to Eilia J. in Care India yesterday, to share my opinion. 

Hon'ble Chief Minister of Uttarakhand gives compensation 

I would propose that the government gives the money in 3 or 4 installments; and all installments should be paid as advances (unlike in Indira Awaj Yojana where money is retroactively paid). This might have some force on the families too to take responsibility for the money and the house, while at the same time help in standardizing, completing the housing, and improve the the Cash Transfer mechanism as well.

If given in one time advance, it looks like the government has given the compensation, and it has technically washed its hands off! A longer term engagement by splitting the money will also give space for more dialogue on land rights, land usage issues, environmental concerns, risk prevention and management etc. 

May be it is time to rethink some of our compensation policies.

Working with Body and Mind

On 21 July, on arrival I checked in into a hotel on Rajpur road with a bit of bargain, after they agreed to give breakfast and dinner as complimentary for Rs. 1,500 per day. My room was in a corner, with very little light coming into the room. The pressure of work was catching up on me. On 22 July, Monday we had the initial orientation with Sarbjit ji leading it. On 24th we were busy in the morning at a Coordination Meeting called by  Sphere India and State Inter Agency Group at Hotel Aketa. Mr. G.Padmanabhan joined us in the afternoon, as we were told that GP (as we fondly call him) would be staying with us as an expert guide on the part of UN. So, that is going to be my biggest asset as I can count on his wisdom and experience.

We were given 10 days time to complete the first part of our task: clusterization of affected villages and prepare a Social Sector Plan for five districts. By the second day I could feel the heat of work, as I found that there is vast difference in the quality of people I had at hand. It was getting tough each day: there were several meetings lined up each day at the state level with various departments, break the grey cells to plan how this Social Sector Plan would look like, and coordinate the six district coordinators who had come with various experience, culture, educational level etc. And, as myself was unsettled, I was really wondering if I fit into the shoes.

In the second week, on Saturday and Sunday (27th & 28th) I took some time off and went around searching for a cheaper and better place to stay. It was certainly a frantic search, as I saw whatever little money I had was getting eroded day after day. At last I found a place "Butola's"--a new guest house just two months old. The rooms were clean and tidy, the room was bright, and even I had a bit of sunlight into my room at different times of the day. Though the place was about 5 km from the Secretariat (the headquarters of the Uttarakhand State Administration) from where I am working currently, it was well connected by road. And it was just about 2 km from my colleagues P.D.Mathur's home. So, at last I shifted there at Rs. 3,500 per month, and with additional 2,500 for breakfast and dinner. Since I found that the food is not worth it, after two weeks, I opted out of the dinner package and kept the breakfast only.

Once I got settled, I was now able to focus better on work. By 30th July I cracked the idea of how to make the Social Sector Plan, and started working on it. But, because the data was not coming from the districts, it kept dragging eternally, and by 15 Aug, we could complete just 3 of such plans. Two more are still pending.

But in the meanwhile, I have been able to get into lot of networking with several departments of the government: Women & Child Development Department, Education, Health and Disaster Management - to be specific. I also found some not so frequented sections to come around and help me. I took assistance of the GIS section in the Disaster Mitigation and Management Center and the NIC cell within the Secretariat to help me with several information or to validate certain information. 

I also grew in good friendship with GP, Sarbjit ji, Shachi, Rahul, P.D. Mathur, Shailesh, Divya and Aashima. Aashima left the team due to personal reasons after a three week stint here. I also got some new friends in the government: Mr. Sudhakar, Mr. Badauni and Ms. Suman. Things are shaping up for better. I have a hope of completing the assignment on a high, though I have to work long hours that take a toil on my body and at times on mind.

Note: Indeed in the second week, I was so stressed that I took a stress test and other tests relating to heart just to check if I am fine. Or, else I should quit this place. But, luckily, my system was able to take it and move on.

First Impressions of the Disaster

03 July 2013 : I knew even before I left Dehradun for Pithoragarh that this district is not the worst affected. However, I also knew that I had not been sent here on a paid tour. The UN and government must have had a specific reason to put me on this visit to Pithoragarh. At the airport which had just a small little concrete roof of about 10ft x 10 ft passage way that had been converted into the control room with the district Collector Mr. Neeraj Kherwal IAS sitting and the 2^nd Commandant of ITBP (Mr. Martolia, because he is from a village called Martoli) in Pithoragarh guiding the ITBP jawans and camps across the hills, and both of them giving briefs to the IAF helicopter captains….and several satellite phones and wireless systems set up to ensure flow of communication, and couple of tents and over 20 civilian and para-military vehicles lying on the side…. It all gave you an impression of you have landed in the midst of an English action thriller.

The district collector explaining about the disaster using map.

The Collector (also known as the District Magistrate) was very welcoming, honest about the disaster, explained the current situation through a map of the hills drawn by the ITBP that had been placed on a small display board. We could question him about the government’s response. Then we went to meet the District Disaster Management Officer Mr. B.S. Rana at his office, and thereafter to the ITBP camp for further discussion on the logistics. Mr. Martolia  took us into a large hall that is used for educating the young soldiers. The hall had a three dimensional replica of the region mentioning where the Indian villages are, borders are, various security camps are and where various passes and passage routes are. This was extremely important for us to understand which route we must be taking, and which we must avoid. This discussion was educative as well, as we decided to make a strategic change: Our team will be divided into two: two men will go to Dharchula and three of us will go Musiyari, and these two towns will be used as our bases to visit other damaged villages. As a guide and security, Mr. Martolia also offered to provide us with a soldier each so that each team is safe and comfortable in the unknown region.  (The maps we saw are security sensitive and so we were asked to delete them from cameras.)

We were tired as it was already 8.15 pm, and I had to update several persons about the present plans, logistics etc, We checked in at Punetha Inn after a little bargain on the rates. The manager of the hotel was accommodating, and we went to bed by 11.00 pm after a vegetarian meal.

Flying Through the Sleepy Mountains

On 2 July we had a meeting at SIDCUL, within the IT park, Dehradun with Additional Secretary, Disaster Management Department and other UN officials. We were briefed about the districts, given contact numbers in those districts, and divided into smaller teams to assess the situation in five different districts. In our team we were five members: Rahul Pandit, Dr. Abhijit B, Ms. Bharati S, and Mr. Subrat Dash, and me. I am to function as the team leader and we were scheduled to visit Pithoragarh district. I was informed by my friends that Pithoragarh is a very far off district, and might take about 15 – 17 hours of journey on road. Late night we were told that we would be taken by a helicopter, and I was given a number to contact at the airport.

An aerial view from the helicopter

On 3 July, at 9.00 am we left for Jolly Grant Airport. I was enquiring from the driver why this airport is named after a person called “Jolly Grant”, but he was not able to explain it. When we reached there, we were received by a messenger who took us through the security system in the airport. It was tough to get in because we had lot of materials that cannot normally be taken on a plane. The security personnel were strict. Once we proved our genuineness we were sent by a car to the helipad within the airport area. I met a gentleman called Mr. Sathya who is the Civil Aviation Manager at the airport. He is from Andhrapradesh, a southern state of India. I spent lot of time in his chamber to understand the hardships these gentlemen faced during the rescue operations after the flashfloods since 16 June and how they coped with it. He was narrating how it was tough on them as they spent hardly two to three hours of sleep, at times in the airport itself. Helicopter and aero plane maintenance, weather forecast follow up, VIP movement, extra number of planes carrying rescued people etc. kept the personnel at the normally sleepy Jolly Grant airport on tenderhooks. Our chopper took off around 12.20, more than an hour after hour scheduled time as the first flight of the chopper had delayed, and so had returned late, and then the captain had to take a break.

While all of us were fit with ear pads to reduce exposure to the chopper’s howling roar, I was fit with a pair of earphones and a microphone through which I can speak to the captain, in case of an emergency, and the captain can speak to me as well, if required. We were amused that the captain and the first officer were using manual maps to navigate through the forests and high mountains to fly to Pithoragarh. There are no ATCs in the area. So, on the alto meter I could see that the reading could be over 10,000 ft at a point, and suddenly it would show it is between 2000 – 4000 ft, and then it would rise to 8,000 and above in few seconds. The reasons are simple : we were flying over some very steep mountains, so when we were flying on a valley the alto meter showed that we were flying high, and suddenly, as we flew over a cliff, it was within a threatening distance. (No wonder, planes and helicopters crash on a bad weather day as they follow the manual maps which leaves lots of scope for human error.

As we landed in Pithoragarh airport, a  makeshift one, that is being repaired to make it into an all weather one, we were received by the District Collector and a very able leader: Mr. Neeraj Kherwal- which is another story.