February 15, 2011Rs. 15 Vo lume 3 Issue 2

i n s i d eFrom poetry to politics, from village to city

The best hotels do not spice the dish and the fragrance and taste are unusual. In homes, “kersangri” provides fibre that is lacking in natural vegetation found in the desert area

AmbujAm AnAnthArAmAn, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

More women are being educated, getting jobs ............................... 2

Through innovative comic strips they were .................................. 3

‘Comic’ Relief To Real Life Problem

Unique Women’s Market in Manipur in dangerWomen vendors of Imphal desperate to .............................. 4

“Rural elders: doubly disadvantaged”

Vedanta hunts for bauxite reserves; tribals prepare for fresh battle

east UP desperate for flood reliefThe distress of flood hit villagers in Eastern Uttar Pradesh ......... 8

The road to the border town of Barmer is full of dry trees, spreads of

brown sand and cheerful faces.Men, women and children

squat on the roads and peacefully watch the numerous army trucks rolling past. On the corner of the busy national highway are women walking with small bundles of what looks like twigs on their heads. They are very thin and their heads are covered by the traditional bright-coloured Rajasthani sari which offers slim protection against the heat.

At first look I put down the wooden sticks to firewood, but a closer look reveals that they have small leaves too. Still closer and a stop to enquire shows up small seeds too.

These seeds are called “ker” and along with another greenish bean-like-species called “sangri” grace the dinner tables as special Rajasthani cuisine in the hotels crowding Barmer’s main street.

The dish when made with fresh

Ker Sangri and carpets – the women of Rajasthan

“ker” and “sangri” costs around Rs 120 a portion, while the dry variety costs about Rs 30 less. The best hotels do not spice the dish and the fragrance and taste are alien to South Indian taste buds. In homes, “kersangri” provides the fibre that is lacking in the natural vegetation found in the area.

An enquiry reveals that we can buy the dry variety in packets that are priced at Rs 80 for 250 grams. The quantity is substantial and can be divided into 20 portions.

Think of the arithmetic and you will realize that the women who transport the desert food to the towns for sale earn hardly a rupee or two for a whole day’s labour.

No wonder that the men who sit on the roadside, small farmers, wear wizened faces that place them in the septuagenarian bracket when they are hardly 40 years old. Balaram Juar says that he belongs to a caste that works with wood, but turned farmer and he ploughs a small patch of Jowar and Bajra. He grins toothily

even before the camera is taken out as does another farmer Duda Ram.

They are sitting along with 12 year old Jitu near a wayside tea stall. The stall is a few kilometers ahead of a small village called Panch Padra. Jitu, who works in the shop, says that he used to go to school and stopped after the fifth standard.

School, by the way, is 10 kilometers away. In contrast to Jitu are other small boys and girls dressed in blue uniform, who are walking fast on the highway on the wayhome.

The bright blue helps the truck drivers clad in army fatigues spot them in the blue haze that clouds the distance.

For the score or so children walking on the side of the road – the sand is difficult to walk on – there are a half dozen who make the heart stop as they cycle past in the heavy traffic.

The tourist cars are few compared to the army vehicles. Not every one wearing the fatigues however belongs to the Indian Air Force station located a few kilometers short of Barmer or

the 81st battalion of the BSF stationed in the area. The greatcoat obviously shelters against the bitter chill that descends on the area at night. The area witnessed heavy fighting during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, resulting eventually in an Indian victory in the strategically located district.

We ourselves – my sister and I – are quarrelling in the sleazy hotel room over who decided to come from hot, hotter, hottest Chennai to Rajasthan in winter when the minimum dips to two degrees centigrade. The hotel appears to be a getaway for the army men and their families.

We are in the area for a visit to remote Kiradu temple that lies magnificently deserted and tragically ruined 40 odd km from Barmer.

The long journey from lovely Jodhpur is hard on the bones, with the road being virtually unmotorable in most parts. The driver says most people drive straight from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. He too cheers up when we jump in joy at spotting our first camel herd. The herdsman walks slowly behind the animals dressed in dhothi, kurta and turban, quite sure that the slow beasts, bent forward as though they are accustomed to bearing a terrible weight, know their path. The camels sit in what appears to be families under the small patch of shade offered by the “ker” tree. The other animals spotted in large numbers in the area are goats and white-fleeced sheep.

The sheep provide wool for the silken woolen shawls that hang brilliantly from the shop windows. It is only in Jaisalmer that we get a shopkeeper to talk. Mohan, owner of a handloom shop in the mall there, says that his wife and other female members of the family weave the shawls, “bandini” and “lehria” sarees and dress materials and beautifully embroidered quilts.

“Bandini” is dots – tie and die, while “lehria” is horizontal lines. Mohan sells the prized Rajasthani “bandini” (even connoisseurs can’t tell the difference from the more famous Gujarathi “bandini”) cotton sari for Rs 550 while the “lehria” is Rs 50 less. A “Maharaja” table cloth, which really looks grand enough to adorn a King’s table, goes for just Rs 250. More work by the women crafts persons and the prices go up.

Many foreign tourists throng these shops and are sold the products at exactly the same prices as to the locals or Indian visitors, revealing the strict honour code practiced in the area.

Strangely, these products are not priced much higher in the “craft sales” organized by the government, cooperative societies and private parties in metropolitan Chennai, making one really wonder at the plight of the women who contribute day and night to Rajasthan’s economy. <

The compulsions of ‘moving up the economic ladder’ dictate that other expenses .......................... 5

The Gandhamardan hill ranges are a rich source of diversity ... 6

Madurai Collector celebrates Pongal with HiV-infected ...................... 7

Poor women trained in weaving, traditional footwear ............................. 7

February 15, 20112

Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Mayakovsky...what would a young girl in a tiny village in

Tamil Nadu know of these? A huge lot, provided she’s Rokkiah, a teenager from a conservative Muslim family.

At an age when she should have been transitioning from the games of girlhood to the games of young- womanhood, giggling with friends over innocent gossip, sharing her hopes, her dreams, with them, Rokkiah was absorbing the ideology of philosopher-writers such as these Russian authors.

Those early encounters with revolutionary thinking shaped the sensitivities of this young girl, making her conscious, not only of her own angst, but also of her individuality.

Leaving those nondescript days far behind, today, she is Chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Board, a position she has used to help the forgotten, the neglected and the voiceless, particularly women.

She talks of the abused wife of a policeman, who was unable to get justice from the keepers of the law because the perpetrator of the crime was one of them. The woman, beaten, deprived of food, subjected to all types of cruelty, finally knocked on the doors of the Social Welfare Board. The errant cop was threatened, a court case was filed and the woman is safe in a home. “It was a tough fight, but we got there”.

Society hasn’t really changed, she feels. More women are being educated, getting jobs. But it isn’t enough. There needs to be a change of mindset. If women are to gain self-confidence, knowledge is the only answer, she says. They need to be aware of the outside world. “Women don’t have that awareness now. They feel it’s enough to know only a certain amount and the rest should be left to men. But for strength, women should be aware of the whole gamut of issues, political and social, only then can we decide what we need to fight for, or against.”

Another case -- a sixteen-year-old motherless girl with a drunkard father, forced to ‘marry’ a 54-year-old man who was already married, with a son the same age as her. She was abused in so many ways, till she became mentally deranged. Finally, not being able to cope with her unhinged behaviour, the man himself

SuSAn PhiliP, Chennai, Tamilnadu

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More women are being educated, getting jobs. It isn’t enough. Mindset has to change. If women are to gain self-confidence, knowledge is the only answer

Mother tells me that all bedroom mistakes are mine... History and time have clarified my status... To get impure affection from you, To discharge my responsibility to your child as a mother, To get you to pay for sanitary napkins and birth control pills, And if possible to lord over you for a while, My knowing vagina widens itself.

A poet was born. The intense loneliness of a young mind, deprived of companionship, forced to turn its thoughts inward, distilled into powerful writing.

Her works, collections of poetry, short stories and a novel, are path-breaking in many senses. For one, she’s a woman writer. Two, she’s a Tamil Muslim woman writer. And three, her topics are personal, subjective, candid, unashamedly exploring and expressing a woman’s emotions and feelings as well as her physical experiences. Little wonder that her tradition-bound community and much of society at large found them unacceptable.

Where did she find encouragement, inspiration, apart from authors long dead? She found a kindred spirit in Sundara Ramaswamy, who, like her, wasn’t equipped with educational qualifications, but was a successful writer. “I felt I was inferior because I hadn’t completed my education. I would ask myself how I could get an identity, how I could face the outside world”, recalls Rokkiah. “He would tell me, I too haven’t had a formal education, but I’m writing. Your poetry will make you known. He liked my work and helped me publish my poems in his magazine, Kala Chuvadu.”

It had, of necessity, to be a surreptitious process to begin with. She wrote under the pen-name Salma.

“Initially, no one knew who Salma was, but gradually, people realised”, she says. Of course there

was opposition, from her family, community and society. People thought that once she was married, she’d give up writing. But she continued, unfazed by disapproval.

“That I shouldn’t write was a general barrier imposed by society. At any time, anywhere, when someone does something outside the norms of society, there will be opposition. I felt I shouldn’t be hampered by such restrictions. Because I had read widely, I developed self-confidence, an inner strength which helped me resist opposition.

I felt that I shouldn’t let the criticism of others stop me from doing what I wanted to”, she explains.

Circumstances conspired in her favour. Her husband had political ambitions, but couldn’t contest the Panchayat elections in his own village because of reservation for women. So he made his wife a ‘dummy’ candidate, but things didn’t work out quite the way he’d

took her to a doctor. Medication cleared her mind somewhat, she recalled her aunt’s phone number, and managed to inform her of her plight.

“A complaint was lodged, we rescued the girl, she is now in one of our homes, she’s undergoing a computer course, and her child is in school. But we can’t give her back the lost years of her youth”, laments Rokkiah, who herself lost the blossoming years of her life.

It wasn’t by choice that the young Rokkiah took to poring over heavy classical literature. As she has recalled in the past, village norms, which did not countenance young girls attending school after puberty, coupled with a childish misdemeanour, resulted in her formal education coming to an abrupt stop. Worse, it left her confined to her home for about eight years, with no chance of meaningful interaction with anyone outside her immediate family since the age of 13.

“My only refuge was books”, she says. Her village, near Tiruchirappalli, had a library. It wasn’t a well-stocked one by any means, but it did have a selection of Western classics translated into Tamil. These became Rokkiah’s companions. She must have read them over and over again in the 1980s, familiarising herself with the thoughts and ideals of people who were revolutionaries in their time.

“I saw how they wrote about their experiences, expressed themselves, and thought, why shouldn’t I write about my own experiences and feelings?” she says.

planned. Rokkiah alias Salma took her responsibilities seriously, and managed to make a mark for herself.

Talking of those early days, she remembers how she brought women work. “It was only small time work, through self-help groups, but it was a beginning, and even now those SHGs are functioning”. She went on to contest elections under the DMK banner, and though she lost, was appointed to her present post of Chairperson of the Tamil Nadu Social Welfare Board in 2006.

Even today, her family largely ignores her literary achievements, but the world has taken note. She isn’t known with reference to her husband or her father, but as Salma, path-breaking poet.

Awards and literary recognition have come. Asked about future plans, she says, as a poet, she’s given her mind some time to lie fallow. “I find that everyone, including myself, is writing about the same themes. I don’t want to keep repeating myself, or what others are writing, so I thought I should take a break.”

In her public persona: “As part of a political party, the party’s world is my world, my thoughts are necessarily those of the party.

This hampers me, I’m not able to freely express my views on so many things happening around me. I look ahead to a time when I can be my own person, voice my own opinions”.

On a personal note: “I started from nowhere, a small little village. I was plagued by the fear of never being able to achieve anything.

For 32 years I was in agony, thinking, here I am, born, living, will I die without having done anything? Today, I am in this place, this position, which even I didn’t dream of. I am happy!”

From poetry to politics, from village to city

In her poem ‘Oppandham’ (Contract) she writes:

Focus

February 15, 2011 3

“HIV se hum darte nahin, hume bhi hai jeene ka adhikar. To kya hai aap

hume appnane ko tyar?” (we are not afraid of HIV and we have a right to live too. Will you accept us too) ask 9 year old Sumita and 12 year old Sonu.

-“HIV hai tho kya hai, hum pankh laga ke udenge. Ek din apne pariwar ka naam roshan karenge” (so what if we have HIV one day we will bring laurels by our achievements to our family) declares 15 year old Himanshu.

-“HIV AIDS se ladne ke liye yeh humne thana hai, sab bacho ko padhana hai inka jeevan banana hai. Inhe samaj mein sthan dilna hai.” (We have sworn to fight against HIV and through education we will become something in life and claim our place in society) stresses 16 year old Deepika.

But the strongest point that these kids make through a very unconventional medium is a very audible, “We are not HIV Positive!”

All part of a Comic Workshop organised by World Comics India on HIV affected and infected children the voices that found expression through the drawings here touched many.

Organised in collaboration with UMEED, an NGO working for People Living With HIV/AIDS in Uttar Pradesh the children grabbed the opportunity to tell the world about the stigma and humiliation they are facing as children of HIV infected parents.

Through innovative comic strips they were taught to create in the workshop came out of their pens was years of pent up emotions that was waiting for a release.

And about time too as the comic workshop was just the platform that these kids were waiting for, the drawings they made gave vent

Through innovative comic strips they were taught to create in the workshop came out of their pens was years of pent up emotions that was waiting for a release

AnjAli Singh, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

A child sketches the story of her life in a comic book she creates in a workshop at Lucknow organised by World Comics

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‘Comic’ Relief To Real Life Problem

to their feelings of anger, pain, humiliation, loneliness and their yearning for a normal life as normal children. They were more than vocal about their experiences owing to the discrimination they face as children of HIV positive parents.

And how did it feel speaking their mind sketches their thoughts for the world to read and see?

For Himanshu Kesarwani it is God sent chance to say what he has always wanted too, “I live with my uncle and aunt after my father died of AIDS but they both insult and ill-treat me everyday. It hurts to hear things said about my parents and me when it is not my fault that I have AIDS. I always wanted to tell my uncle how much he hurt me with his words but did not know how until now. Through

the comic I made I not only told him but the whole world how I am treated by my own family. I know my uncle will beat me up after that but I do not mind at least I have spoken my mind,” quips 12 year old from Allahabad.

Nandini Pandey, 12, from Sultanpur, who came to the workshop with her HIV positive mother, says “My father was a truck driver in Kolkata. He fell very ill and died. My mother also fell ill and people say she is HIV positive. My grandmother turned her out. I have to live alone with my aunts and uncles. Every day they remind me my parents had AIDS. They treat me like an untouchable and if I touch their things or use their soap by mistake they shout at me and ask the servant to throw the soap out. It is very painful and insulting. I cry everyday and try to explain to people I AM NOT POSITIVE but no one cares.”

It was a commendable effort as the comic strip truly comes from the deepest and most painful part of a child’s experience. It touches one’s emotions to the core.

But that is what they are meant to do, says Sharad Sharma, former journalist and Founder World Comics India, who is coaching the children at the workshop. “In a typical comic, feats of super heroes are eulogized but in these grass root comics you become the hero of the strip. The drawings that these children create is based on their own life’s struggles and how they face them and come up winners. In short they are the true super heroes in their stories that are being told

through pictures. This in turn also helps to make their voices heard which usually get stifled being away from the mainstream thought process.”

While Sharad has been teaching children how to express themselves through drawing since 1996 and has held workshops all over the country and abroad, this former journalist and cartoonist feels that when comics strips made on issues like stigma and discrimination are kept simple the effect it has is more powerful. So the tools used to teach these children to draw helps remove inhibitions about sketching and turn simple lines into faces with expressions complete with dialogue boxes thrown in for effect.

Says Sharad, “That is why we keep the medium black and white which is simple and easy to replicate when the kids want to continue making the strips back in their homes and villages. I remember a workshop I did in Rajasthan where the theme was based on gender bias, when we invited participants only boys came as girls were not allowed out of the house and had to stay behind purdah. But I insisted that the girls come and few were allowed to attend. In that workshop one of the girls drew a comic strip on the suffocation of living behind a veil and the restrictions she had to face. From then on she used the comics as a medium to fight for her right to live her life and today she is a workshop coordinator with us motivating others like her.”

Having conducted comics workshop in Latin America and Brazil as well, Sharad terms the comics strips

based on one’s own life a powerful medium of free speech in the future.

A fact that is completely seconded with HIV positive parents like Lalita Yadav who has been living with the infection for the past ten years and had loads to say when she created her own comic strip. “My husband was a drug addict and that is how he got infected and passed it on to me. Ever since then me and my two children have lived facing the stigma of being positive. I know I will die one day but my worries are for my children who will be left to the mercy of my unfeeling relatives. Everyday I think about this and die a thousand deaths. The comic workshop I attended with my children has given me hope as I was able to express my grief and seek help for them too. I am sure once people and government officials see our comic exhibition they will come up with options for our children’s future so that they do not live a life of deprivation post my death.”

A lesson well learned by most affected and infected parents feels Usha Awasthi, President of Lucknow based UMEED , “Since every drawing a child has made in the workshop will be on display reaching out to people at whatever public or private function UMEED can make an appearance at I hope we can sensitise people enough to understand that HIV affected children and women are no different than us. What better way to raise awareness and motivate an attitude change through a powerful visual medium as a comic strip based on one’s own experience?

A young HIV affected boy drawing at the workshop attended by HIV hit children from all over Uttar Pradesh in the state capital

The sketches were on display at the Lucknow Mahotsava, the biggest cultural fest in Uttar Pradesh <

February 15, 20114

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The Roadside Vendors Welfare Association, Khwaramban Keithel (RVWAK), Imphal,

a women’s group, has charged the Government of Manipur with police harassment and not fulfilling its promises to this marginalized section of society. It has sent a memorandum to the Prime Minister to this effect, seeking immediate remedy.

In its memorandum, KNKVWA charges the state government with not fulfilling its promises to the vendors made in 2005; that non-transferable permanent licenses have been arbitrarily cancelled; that the blueprint of a construction project and allocation of seats, amenities and other plans, have not been made public; that the pleas of women traders for a meaningful dialogue have fallen on deaf ears; and that there has been no announcement of the list of original license holders. The memorandum demands that the economic interests of thousands of women traders be respected and that seats must be allocated to each of the original license holders. They also urge that once temporary market sheds are vacated, they should be allotted to the roadside vendors, who at present have no fixed space from which to sell their goods.

The market, situated in the heart of Imphal city, capital of Manipur, is a unique institution with a long history, run exclusively by women. Today, these women are facing threats. Bilasini Devi, 62, has been selling fruit for the past 40 years, placing her wares at a spot on the roadside within the Khwairamband Nupi Keithel (Women's Market). Bilasini says, "I began selling fruit at the age of 22, and brought up my children on my earnings. But now, the police are chasing us here and there, and we do not know where to sit to sell our goods."

Women vendors of Imphal desperate to maintain their livelihood

Unique Women’s Market in Manipur in Danger

DeePti PriyA mehrotrA, (WFS)

As a member of the RVWAK, Bilasini is struggling to retain a space for herself and for the 5,000 or so vendors who work in and around Khwairamband Bazaar. Kshetri Tama Devi, 30, President of RVWAK, says, "Roadside vendors work in very unhealthy conditions. They have no stalls or places to sit. Traditionally, they sat at the roadside and nobody objected. They sell vegetables, fruit, fish, poultry and hundreds of small household items. However, due to the beautification drive launched by the Manipur government, they are being harassed by police and the municipal authorities."

Members of RVWAK are typically working class women who bring up families by the dint of their hard labour, sometimes spending up to 12 hours at the market. Bilasini adds, "The authorities collect tax from us - Rs 10 per person per month, yet the police chase us from one place to another like cattle. As a tax payer, I demand my space. I demand my right to ply my trade!"

Apart from roadside vendors, another 4,000 women traders and vendors have held stalls at designated spots within Khwairamband Nupi Keithel. These stalls are exclusively reserved for women, traditionally inherited over the generations, and

passed from mothers to daughters or daughters-in-law. The traders deal in textiles, jewellery, food and other items. Trade is brisk, with gorgeous hand-woven garments and cloth, produced by women as a cottage industry. This market is the major shopping centre of Manipur, and a must-see for all visitors. Since 2005, the Manipur government launched a drive to 'modernise' and 'beautify' the market. Initially, women traders and vendors welcomed this, hoping it would improve the poor conditions in which they functioned.

Laishram Mema Devi, 55, has been selling jewellery from her stall in Khwairamband Bazaar since 1980. As President of the Khwairamband Nupi Keithel Vendors Welfare Association, Manipur (KNKVWA), a traders' association, she explains, "We 4,000 women were license-holders, with permanent stalls in the market. In 2005, the government approached us to modernise the market area. They promised that reconstruction would take two years. We agreed, and signed a MoU in 2005, under which the government agreed to provide space in the new market to all the old license-holders. But the reconstruction work has gone on for over five years. All this time, we have functioned out of temporary sheds. There is a lot of corruption, mismanagement and bribery. The new market building is nearly complete, but 500 women traders who held permanent licenses are being denied stalls. Their licenses were taken away and are not being returned."

KNKVWA members have been petitioning local authorities to hold a dialogue with them, but to no avail. In late August, Mema Devi, Tama Devi and three of their colleagues came to New Delhi to alert the

Central government to the issue. They submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister's Office alleging "A reign of corruption, bribery, favouritism and mismanagement in the affairs of the market". They pleaded to the government to intervene.

They allege that licenses are being issued to non-vendors, while hundreds of genuine vendors are being denied them. In other parts of Imphal, some markets that were earlier reserved for women, such as the Heingan Yonfam and the Langthabal Potfam, have been de-reserved. This is ominous for the future of the Khwairamband Women's Market. The ranks of women who need to earn their livelihood in the informal sector are swelling by the day, due to rampant unemployment exacerbated by widespread conflict. Most of these women are family breadwinners, including many who have been widowed in ongoing conflicts.

Says Malem Ningthouja, a research student in Delhi University and member of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, "Women have traditionally held a high place in Manipur. They have been carrying on trading and business for years. We are proud of our heritage. But today the Manipur government is threatening the survival of this great heritage." He estimates the total number of women traders and vendors in Imphal city to be anything between 10,000 and 15,000. While Khwairamband is Manipur's biggest market, there are others run by women scattered across the state, for instance at Nambol, Thoubal, Moirang, Moreh, Ningthoukhong, Kakching and several other places.

Tama, Bilasini, Mema and their colleagues are living up to the glorious tradition of women’s collective struggle against injustice, which is part of the history of Manipur.

In 1904, women traders of Khwairamband Bazar were among the leaders of the First Nupilan (Women's War) against the British policy of forced labour, and in 1939 they were at the forefront of the Second Nupilan, fought against the colonial policy of hoarding and exporting rice in times of scarcity. Such activism paid high dividends for the local community women here and they believe they need to take a page from the book of their grandmothers and great-grandmothers to stem the alleged excesses committed by the state. Irom Sharmila, a citizen of Imphal, for instance, is well known for her unprecedented ten-year long hunger strike, against “state violence”.

Women vendors of Imphal are struggling not only for their survival, but for justice, peace and the very spirit of democracy.

KNKVWA members have been petitioning local authorities to hold a dialogue with them, but to no avail

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Unique Women’s Market in Manipur in Danger

February 15, 2011 5

Pujamma grimaces with pain and rubs her arthritic knees as she enters the “anganwadi” at

Suradenupura, a small nondescript village at the end of a dusty track branching off National Highway 7. It is an hour’s drive from Bengaluru. As the Nightingales’ mobile medical van arrives at 11 AM on a Friday morning, elderly villagers, men and women, some doubled up with age-related hunchback and some using bamboo sticks to steady themselves, begin to congregate. And the weekly medical camp begins, with Dr Vasantha checking their blood pressure and other parameters.

This is the first of three villages that the van will visit today, covering Sadenahalli next and then moving to Tharahunise before returning at the end of the day to Bengaluru. The nearest Primary Health Centre (PHC) is 7-8 kilometres away, and for these aged villagers, making the trip there is impossible. The medical needs of the elderly rural community are way down the list of priorities, both for their families and for the government. These are all families eking out a living from rural farming. The compulsions of ‘moving up the economic ladder’ dictate that other expenses, like education of children, treatment for the earning members of the household, and even acquiring

The compulsions of ‘moving up the economic ladder’ dictate that other expenses, like children’s education, treatment for earning members and even acquiring consumer goods take precedence

SAkuntAlA nArASimhAn, Bangalore, Karnataka

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“Rural elders: doubly disadvantaged”

consumer goods like TV sets or two-wheelers, take precedence. The old are so doubly disadvantaged, as villagers and as senior citizens.

It is to cater to their needs that the rural project undertaken by Nightingales, founded by Dr Radha Murthy, sends a van with Dr Vasantha and her helper-nurse Ambika, five days a week (Monday to Friday) into the villages, with a box of medicines

and other essential paraphernalia for basic age-related medical problems. The van stops at the “anganwadi” at the first two places, while at the third, Tharahunise, patients come into the van for the doctor’s attention because there is no other place for them to be examined. Each of 17 such villages covered by the project is visited once a week and Dr Vasantha keeps a detailed record of each patient’s

problems and needs, so that she can follow up on subsequent visits and monitor their health status.

Many of the patients have cataracts that need attention. Dr Vasantha examines them and directs them to a monthly eye care camp held in the area by another NGO. Many complain of joint pain (some of them work in the fields or take cattle for grazing) and for them, Ambika hands out medicated cotton swabs to rub on their knees and get some relief. Many have asthmatic problems caused by the arid and dusty environment. One old woman comes in clutching tablets given at the hospital at Tumkur town, which contains steroids and has aggravated her asthma. No one has bothered to follow up such cases or monitor reactions, and the villagers, being illiterate, blindly follow instructions given at the big hospitals by doctors who are too busy to spare much time.

And repeat visits to the city hospital are expensive as well as difficult. (They cannot go alone, and the rest of the family cannot afford to take time off from work).

Dr Vasantha examines her, alters the prescription, and also gives medication for the aggravated breathing difficulty. Some are anaemic or need relief from a troublesome cough. Each one receives a patient check-up and basic medication.

Muniyamma walks in to show a septic infection on her feet caused by standing in water-logged fields.

Many complain of itch because the cold winter dries up their brittle skin. Such cases are not “priority” from the point of view of the families, they are not life threatening, but they do erode the quality of life for the elderly.

A doctor’s visit serves multiple purposes here -- just the fact that a sympathetic medical practitioner is available to listen to their health-related woes.

“My eyes are watering all the time”, “I can’t sleep at night, can you give me something?” or “I feel giddy every morning and can’t digest anything.” Speaking helps them feel better. For some, the social interaction that the doctor’s visit provides helps break the monotony of their sunset years. Reassurances from Dr Vasantha that their BP is OK and the lungs are clear are enough to cheer them up.

The Nightingales mobile facility is meant specifically for old people, but when a younger patient comes in, it is impossible to turn him or her away. So, Dr Vasantha ends up attending to their needs too – a young man limps in at Suradenupura with a soiled cloth bandage on one foot that is swollen after an accident in the fields.

His wound is cleaned and dressed, an injection is given to prevent infection, and he hobbles out clutching tablets and a referral to the nearest hospital for an anti-tetanus shot.

There are touching moments too – like when 89-year-old Kempiah takes an injection and his five-year-old grandchild strokes his hand and comforts him.

At Tharahunise, a 99-year-old man climbs into the van to get his check-up and collect medicines. A 90-year-old woman who is not mobile is visited by the doctor at her home, much to the relief of her relatives.

Just half an hour away, along the highway, fancy new apartment complexes and townships are being advertised, realty companies will make a killing, the multi-crore Prestige Montecarlo housing complex with a basement parking lot that seems almost a kilometre long, is just a few minutes away at Yelahanka.

But for these villagers, in particular the old, even basic medical care is unavailable unless some NGO takes up a project.

A sad comment indeed on our skewed developmental priorities and the paper promises about “Health for All” that the government makes.

A 99-year-old patient being examined at Tharahunise village

Dr Vasantha examining aged patients at the Nightingales rural camp

Dr Vasantha and her team go from village to village examining elderly people and treating this neglected section of society. Anaemia, asthma, arthiritis, the problems are manifold

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February 15, 20116

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Sambalpur, Bajaru Dharua of Manbodhpali village at the foothills of Orissa’s

Gandhamardan hill ranges is a worried man. He is spending sleepless nights despite the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) refusing to accept Vedanta’s proposal to mine in the Niyamgiri hills. “We are sure the group will try to exert all pressure on our government to take away our sacred hills”, says Bajaru, a farmer and traditional herbal medicine practitioner.

The Gandhamardan hills in the Eastern Ghats have an estimated deposit of about 220 million tonne bauxite reserves.

In the eighties, Bajaru, then a young boy, fought a successful battle to drive away public sector Bharat Aluminum Company (BALCO). “BALCO rakshash (demon) made an abortive attempt to mine our mother”, he says as he prepares for another day of a walk up to the hills to collect some precious herbs. Hundreds of such practitioners have been depending on Gandhamardan for ages.

Arguably, one of the most vocal and successful struggles in the eighties was due to the direct and intimate dependence of lakhs of people on the sacred hills. What haunts Bajaru now is the changed character of the government and corporates. “We got support from everywhere. Even people in the government supported our struggle against BALCO and the company, though bad, was not as criminal as Vedanta Alumina”, he alleges.

Gandhamardan hill ranges are a rich source of diversity for medicinal plants. A report of the Botanical Survey of India (BSI), 1963 recorded 2,700 angiosperms and 125 species of important medicinal plants, out of a total of 220 species of medicinal and quasi-medicinal and economically-vital plants. The locals put this number at 500.

The rich biodiversity of the area can be gauged from the fact that over 100 traditional medicine practitioners live here. They look after about a half a lakh tribal people. There are two Ayurvedic colleges and hospitals on both sides of Gandhamardan — one in Bargarh district and the other in Balangir. The people here repose more faith in Ayurveda. For the villagers, collecting herbs and supplying to medicinal practitioners and even Ayurvedic companies like Dabur and Zandu have been their main occupation.

Villages such as Khandijharan, Manbhang, Magurmal and Cherenga Jhanj are known as hubs of such

The Gandhamardan hill ranges are a rich source of diversity for medicinal plants. According to a report of the Botanical Survey of India 220 plant species of medicinal value can be found here

Vedanta hunts for bauxite reserves; tribals prepare for fresh battle

practice. A study conducted by the Regional Research Laboratory recorded the medicinal uses of nearly 200 species, out of which they found the use of 77 to be new or "interesting".

“We have been taught by our parents that Gandhamardan is our mother and we are here because of it. We get food, water, shelter and everything due to this abode of Lord Nrushinghanath”, says Bajaru. “After we succeeded against BALCO, we thought the government would impose a permanent ban on mining here. Unfortunately, however, the successive governments have kept the option open for mining.” says Pradeep Purohit of the Gandhamardan Surakshya Yuva Parishad(GSYP), which led the movement in the eighties.

“The government has neither taken care of enriching the data base on Gandhamardan’s biodiversity nor has done anything to protect these resources”, alleges Prof. Arttabandhu

Mishra, a retired professor of Sambalpur University, who has been a great supporter of the conservation movement. “The government has rather done things to destroy the hills and forests. In the name of promoting medicinal plants under Centrally sponsored schemes the Forest Department has cleared natural forests to raise medicinal plant nurseries.”

“We fought BALCO and felt victorious but the government‘s continuous and systematic negligence of our area proves that it wants us to die silently. Drought woes have increased manifold and organized timber smuggling is being promoted under the nose of the Forest Department”, says Bajaru. “Properly planned, many valuable medicinal species, which have high market value at the national and international level, can fetch a substantial income to the tribal people if they are propagated in a big way in the wasteland available near Gandhamardan”, argues Prof. Mishra. “Instead of promoting eco-services based development, our government is all out to sell the minerals at the cost of the local people and its environment”, he charges.

“We have been keeping a vigil on developments post the Niyamgiri verdict and have been organizing our people to ready them for another fight”, says Purohit. “Vedanta is very powerful and it can very well come to our area”, says an alert Purohit. His apprehensions may well come true as Vedanta has already approached the Government of Orissa to find bauxite. It has got a long-pending application to mine bauxite from these hills. In fact, in the year 2008, a fresh controversy

had erupted when people knew that Vedanta had made this application.

In that year, some active members of GSYP suddenly discovered a notice pasted in the Tehsildar office at Paikmal, which sought public opinion/objections on a proposal of Vedanta for mining in Gandhamardan. “By the time we saw the notice, the date for submitting objections was already over. We smelt foul play and objected to it”, recalls Purohit. At that time, an official of the Vedanta Company however refused to admit that a notice had been issued. He said, as a normal procedural practice the company had applied for mining lease and that Vedanta was the 20th applicant.

“Each time we raise our apprehensions, the government comes out with a statement refuting this but never has the government taken a clear cut stand”, says Pradeep.

In 2006, news spread that NALCO was going to mine Gandhamardan and the GSYP jumped into action.

Referring to Vedanta, Bajaru says “The company left but the road constructed by it to the top of hills became the road for timber smugglers to loot the forests; the pits it dug at the hill top have silted the streams, damaging our crops and increasing the risk of drought in our area”.

No wonder then that tribals live on in fear and pray to Lord Nrusinghanath to drive the fierce demons looming in the horizon.

rAnjAn k PAnDA, Sambalpur, Odisha

Correction: The photograph published on the first page of January Grassroots shows PrahaladMeherand not BichitraMeher as given in the caption.

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anja

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February 15, 2011

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I N S I D EFrom poetry to politics, from village to city

The best hotels do not spice the dish and the fragrance and taste are unusual. In homes, “kersangri” provides fibre that is lacking in natural vegetation found in the desert area

AMBUJAM ANANTHARAMAN, Chennai, Tamil Nadu

More women are being educated, getting jobs ............................... 2

Through innovative comic strips they were .................................. 3

‘Comic’ Relief To Real Life Problem

Unique Women’s Market in Manipur in DangerWomen vendors of Imphal desperate to .............................. 4

“Rural elders: doubly disadvantaged”

Vedanta hunts for bauxite reserves; tribals prepare for fresh battle

East UP desperate for flood reliefThe distress of flood hit villagers in Eastern Uttar Pradesh ......... 8

The road to the border town of Barmer is full of dry trees, spreads of

brown sand and cheerful faces.Men, women and children

squat on the roads and peacefully watch the numerous army trucks rolling past. On the corner of the busy national highway are women walking with small bundles of what looks like twigs on their heads. They are very thin and their heads are covered by the traditional bright-coloured Rajasthani sari which offers slim protection against the heat.

At first look I put down the wooden sticks to firewood, but a closer look reveals that they have small leaves too. Still closer and a stop to enquire shows up small seeds too.

These seeds are called “ker” and along with another greenish bean-like-species called “sangri” grace the dinner tables as special Rajasthani cuisine in the hotels crowding Barmer’s main street.

The dish when made with fresh

Ker Sangri and carpets – the women of Rajasthan

“ker” and “sangri” costs around Rs 120 a portion, while the dry variety costs about Rs 30 less. The best hotels do not spice the dish and the fragrance and taste are alien to South Indian taste buds. In homes, “kersangri” provides the fibre that is lacking in the natural vegetation found in the area.

An enquiry reveals that we can buy the dry variety in packets that are priced at Rs 80 for 250 grams. The quantity is substantial and can be divided into 20 portions.

Think of the arithmetic and you will realize that the women who transport the desert food to the towns for sale earn hardly a rupee or two for a whole day’s labour.

No wonder that the men who sit on the roadside, small farmers, wear wizened faces that place them in the septuagenarian bracket when they are hardly 40 years old. Balaram Juar says that he belongs to a caste that works with wood, but turned farmer and he ploughs a small patch of Jowar and Bajra. He grins toothily

even before the camera is taken out as does another farmer Duda Ram.

They are sitting along with 12 year old Jitu near a wayside tea stall. The stall is a few kilometers ahead of a small village called Panch Padra. Jitu, who works in the shop, says that he used to go to school and stopped after the fifth standard.

School, by the way, is 10 kilometers away. In contrast to Jitu are other small boys and girls dressed in blue uniform, who are walking fast on the highway on the wayhome.

The bright blue helps the truck drivers clad in army fatigues spot them in the blue haze that clouds the distance.

For the score or so children walking on the side of the road – the sand is difficult to walk on – there are a half dozen who make the heart stop as they cycle past in the heavy traffic.

The tourist cars are few compared to the army vehicles. Not every one wearing the fatigues however belongs to the Indian Air Force station located a few kilometers short of Barmer or

the 81st battalion of the BSF stationed in the area. The greatcoat obviously shelters against the bitter chill that descends on the area at night. The area witnessed heavy fighting during the Indo-Pak war of 1971, resulting eventually in an Indian victory in the strategically located district.

We ourselves – my sister and I – are quarrelling in the sleazy hotel room over who decided to come from hot, hotter, hottest Chennai to Rajasthan in winter when the minimum dips to two degrees centigrade. The hotel appears to be a getaway for the army men and their families.

We are in the area for a visit to remote Kiradu temple that lies magnificently deserted and tragically ruined 40 odd km from Barmer.

The long journey from lovely Jodhpur is hard on the bones, with the road being virtually unmotorable in most parts. The driver says most people drive straight from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer. He too cheers up when we jump in joy at spotting our first camel herd. The herdsman walks slowly behind the animals dressed in dhothi, kurta and turban, quite sure that the slow beasts, bent forward as though they are accustomed to bearing a terrible weight, know their path. The camels sit in what appears to be families under the small patch of shade offered by the “ker” tree. The other animals spotted in large numbers in the area are goats and white-fleeced sheep.

The sheep provide wool for the silken woolen shawls that hang brilliantly from the shop windows. It is only in Jaisalmer that we get a shopkeeper to talk. Mohan, owner of a handloom shop in the mall there, says that his wife and other female members of the family weave the shawls, “bandini” and “lehria” sarees and dress materials and beautifully embroidered quilts.

“Bandini” is dots – tie and die, while “lehria” is horizontal lines. Mohan sells the prized Rajasthani “bandini” (even connoisseurs can’t tell the difference from the more famous Gujarathi “bandini”) cotton sari for Rs 550 while the “lehria” is Rs 50 less. A “Maharaja” table cloth, which really looks grand enough to adorn a King’s table, goes for just Rs 250. More work by the women crafts persons and the prices go up.

Many foreign tourists throng these shops and are sold the products at exactly the same prices as to the locals or Indian visitors, revealing the strict honour code practiced in the area.

Strangely, these products are not priced much higher in the “craft sales” organized by the government, cooperative societies and private parties in metropolitan Chennai, making one really wonder at the plight of the women who contribute day and night to Rajasthan’s economy.

The compulsions of ‘moving up the economic ladder’ dictate that other expenses .......................... 5

The Gandhamardan hill ranges are a rich source of diversity ... 6

Madurai Collector celebrates Pongal with HIV-infected ........................ 7

Poor women trained in weaving, traditional footwear .............................. 7

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Articles up to 1500 words on women empowerment, illiteracy, tribal issues, gender inequalities, child welfare and individual achievements, with one or two photographs in jpg format of high resolution, to run over a full page in Grassroots are welcome.

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Lutfa Begum, who lives in Joyrampur Mandalpara in the small town of Jangipur,

West Bengal is an example of the successful empowerment of women. Like her peers, she was married young. With three children and a rickshaw-puller husband, she learned to deal with the poverty in her daily life. Her life changed for the better after she became a part of the Innovative/Challenge Fund set up by ACCESS, a Delhi-based NGO.

Today, Lufta Begum works in a gamcha (hand-woven towel) and masari (mosquito net) production unit. She earns between Rs 1200 and Rs 1500 a month. Empowering her in this fashion has had a spin-off effect, as she is now able to send her daughters to school. She could not afford to do this earlier.

The Innovative/Challenge Fund program has changed the lives of a significant number of women of Jangipur. Once they were trained in the weaving skills required to produce the gamchas and masaris, the women

The Innovative/Challenge Fund program of ACCESS, a Delhi based NGO, has changed the lives of a significant number of women of Jangipur in West Bengal

Poor women trained in weaving, traditional footwearAmeyA nAgArAjAn, Delhi

Madurai Collector celebrates Pongal with HIV-

infected children at TVS schoolBundles of sugarcane tied

together were placed all over the venue. Children were busy watching the dish Pongal, being made in a huge pot, some were chewing sugarcane while others were just playing. Pongal celebration was even more special this year for 250 HIV-infected children, who gathered at the TVS school in Madurai, as District Collector C Kamaraj, distributed new clothes.

Appreciating TVS, an industrial group based in Tamil Nadu, the Collector said, “Education, medical support and nutritional support are essential for every child and especially important for children infected and affected by AIDS. These children should be capable of facing the world with confidence. The District Administration is keen to ensure that through Inter-departmental collaboration these services will be made available for these children. It is important that more organisations should come forward to support these children, which can make a huge difference in their lives.” The National AIDS Control Organisation has identified 10 districts across the country to

Madurai Collector celebrates Pongal with HIV-infected children at TVS school

began to produce and market their work at a profit of about Rs 30 per piece.

Thirty odd poor women of Jangipur have benefited from this production unit. Not only are they now trained in a useful skill, creating products that have a great demand in the local market, they are also now considered contributing members of their households. They command the respect that comes with that position. Their opinions are heard, and they have the power to make choices about their children and, like Lutfa, empower them too by sending them to school.

They have learned to make their presence felt in the market, and now stock up on raw materials to reduce their dependence on middle-men and protect themselves from price fluctuations.

ACCESS is an NGO that was originally set up to establish and augment the microfinance work done by the CARE-CASHE program. It soon expanded to actively engage in work directly impacting the livelihoods of the poor, by organizing

primary producers and aggregating them to make them more marketable. Helping these people access resources and markets and make themselves scalable helps integrate them into the larger value chain of the market.

As it stands now, ACCESS works on two prongs: microfinance (MF) and livelihoods. The microfinance aspect includes consolidating budding MFIs so that they can boost operations, improve portfolios and address the rising need for microfinance in poor communities. The organization also works to facilitate the inflow of funds from various financial institutions. It has created the ACCESS Microfinance Alliance Platform. Nationally, ACCESS generates awareness by organising the Microfinance India Summit, a global annual conference that provides a space for people in microfinance

from all over the country to meet and interact

with one another.The ACCESS

l i v e l i h o o d s program works with

local NGOs to develop strategies to increase their effectiveness in the communities in which they work. It also endeavors to provide access to a

larger market, along with the

Ode to Earth initiative. The latter

brings a national network of producers, NGOs and customers to one market, giving small craftspeople access to a market that would normally be too expensive for them to reach

An example is the Mojari project started in 2008 in Rajasthan. It has been working to improve the market acceptance of mojaris - traditional footwear. Made from locally available vegetable tanned leather, the loss of a market had led to the shifting of large numbers of people from skilled to unskilled work.

By reviving the craft and assisting with design and other products that can be created using the craft, ACCESS has revitalized the livelihoods of these craftspeople.

The artisans largely belong to the scheduled cast community, which means they have no land. This made the revival of their livelihood of critical importance.

ACCESS’ input in improving raw materials as well as improvising and adapting designs to be more marketable has resulted in much better market penetration. By systematically organizing the members of the community, ACCESS enabled them to register a Producer Company, Udairpuria United Mojari Producer Co. Ltd. It is registered under the Companies Act.

The project has successfully bettered the lives of 105 artisan households by disseminating new techniques and technologies.

Radhika Kumari, Project Manager with ACCESS has this to say about the Mojari project. “Why I think this is an amazing project is because they are working with traditional craftspeople, who, because it is a traditional craft, are losing not just their livelihoods but also their skills when they go into other markets.

So simply reviving the craft is not enough; we have to make them understand the market, understand customers, and survive in the market.”

implement the Children Affected by AIDS (CABA) programme. This programme aims to provide the affected children seven essential services, which include Medical Care, Nutritional Care, Educational Support, Legal Support, Alternative Care and Economic Strengthening. In Tamil Nadu, Madurai and Salem Districts have been selected for implementing this programme. The District AIDS Prevention and Control Unit (DAPCU) is in charge.

To strengthen the CABA programme in Madurai District, the TVS administration, in partnership with the DAPCU has initiated “Neyam,” a programme in five taluks. They are Melur, Thirumangalam, Solavandhan,

Usilampatti and Madurai City.Speaking about the programme

Mr Srinivasan, Director, TVS school, said, “We are happy to be supporting these children through this programme. In the last two months, it has been a great experience for both the children as well as the volunteer trainers. The trainers have said that these children are bright and smart, their grasping capacity is also amazing and interesting.”

During the Pongal festivities, the District Collector also released a nine-minute documentary about this initiative titled “Dawn of Hope.” It was produced by the Centre for Advocacy and Research. The documentary was screened during the programme.

Registered with The Registrar of Newspapers for India under TNENG/2009/27557

East UP desperate for flood reliefThe distress of flood hit villagers in Eastern Uttar Pradesh is worsening

bhArAt DogrA, New Delhi

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The flood-hit people of Eastern Uttar Pradesh have been struck by hunger, malnutrition, lack

of warm clothes and permanent dwellings to combat the bitter winter, increase in migrant labour, child labour and disruption of children’s education, say villagers. They are looking to the skies and asking why the government has paid no compensation.

Kabutra, an elderly woman who lives in Tapra hamlet of Radauli panchayat (Gonda district) leads a precarious existence even in normal times as her four-member family is entirely landless.

This family tries its best to meet its most basic need-food- by leasing some farmland on “batai” basis (sharecropping).

After a breach in an embankment last year, this village was inundated by floods. The entire crop of Kabutra's family was destroyed and their “kutcha” house fell down.

Somehow her family has built a precarious, temporary dwelling but this cannot protect them from the bitter winter cold. There are no food stocks in their home. The family can eat only if Kabutra's son gets daily wages. This, in a situation where getting employment is difficult and uncertain.

Is it not surprising then that Kabutra's family has been forced to borrow at the high interest rate of 10 per cent per month just to meet subsistence needs.

The flood waters came in August. When we interviewed her in December about four months later, Kabutra's condition was terrible.

She had not received any help or compensation from the government either for crop loss or for heavy damage to her house.

Similar is the story of Khallu, who lives with his wife and three children in Tapra hamlet of Radauli

panchayat (Gonda district). He does not own any farmland, but had leased three “bighas”. The entire crop was destroyed by the floods.

Khallu shudders at the memory and says that the waves were five feet high at their worst.

Khallu today is forced to live in another person's house. “How long will they shelter me,” he asks in agony. Khallu too has not received compensation for crop or property, although there is provision for both under the Calamity Relief Fund.

To survive, he too has been forced to borrow at the rate of 10 per cent per month. He has already borrowed Rs 3000.

Recently this writer travelled to ten flood-devastated villages of Gonda, Bahraich and Gorakhpur districts in Eastern Utter Pradesh to report on to what extent long-term flood relief has reached them and to find out their condition

three months after the devastation caused by floods and river erosion.

We found repeated tales of flood damage, soil erosion, destroyed property and lack of compensation.

As per provisions of the Calamity Relief Fund (CRF) and the National

Calamity Contingency Fund (NCCF) these people should have received compensation for the loss of crops in this year's floods, but people of all the villages visited said they had not received help so far. As per CRF and related provisions, people of flood affected villagers should have been compensated for destroyed or damaged houses too. Most have not received this aid. Those who did got a lower rate than the official provisions.

Similarly, farmers whose land has been severely eroded should have been compensated. But in

the five erosion-affected villages that we visited, villagers said they had not received this support.

This is the story of Jwalaprasad, a middle-level farmer of Kaharanpurwa hamlet, Golganj panchayat (Fakharpur block of Bahraich district).

Now owing to the relentless erosion of his farmland by the Ghaghra river, he has been reduced to a small farmer leading a very precarious existence. Earlier he had 19 “bighas” and nearly 14 of this have been lost due to the erosion.

He had cultivated paddy on the meagre portion of land left and now

this too has been lost due to the floods. Jwalaprasad, who remembers that he received Rs 800 as partial compensation for property loss a few years ago, naturally wonders why this time no compensation has come.

Another tragic tale is that of Ramjanki, a widow who had about 11 “bighas” of land in Atoda panchayat (Fakharpur block of Bahraich district). The Ghaghra river rose and her land was lost to heavy erosion. She and her family members fled to save their lives, leaving behind most of their belongings. Now like many others of the area, they are forced to live in very difficult conditions on an embankment. Their makeshift dwellings can't provide any protection from the remorseless cold wind. Ramjanki too has been forgotten.

The Ghaghra River has more victims. For instance, Ramchabile, a farmer who lived originally in Munsari village of Mehsi block (Bahraich district). He now lives in Korva panchayat of the same block. He had to move away.

First he settled down some distance away from his original home but had to run again when the river moved relentlessly there too. In Korva panchayat he is facing the same sitatuion and is clueless what to do. Compensation for land loss? Nothing.

In our visit to this region, we also spoke to Tetra, a middle-aged woman who lives in Makhanha panchayat (Compereganj block of Gorakhpur district). Earlier she lived in Dhuswa hamlet. Some years back, due to a breach, her house was destroyed and the entire hamlet washed way. The community broke up under the impact of the floods and the families had to scatter, settling wherever they could.

They received no compensation and their plight has now worsened due to fresh flood damage.

The need for the government to step in is exigent. <