WUNRN
http://www.actionaid.org/2014/12/remembering-tsunami-ten-years
India
– Remembering the Tsunami:10 Years On
Women-Led Recovery Response & Continued Resilience
“Three
quarters of those who died in the tsunami in India were women.”
“All
of the coastal villages came together to form an enormous campaign they called
is “Sea is life, Coast is right”. This was led by the women in the communities
– women who had joined the self-help groups as part of the emergency response.”
“By
working together, the women’s groups who responded to the tsunami then have the
capacity to prepare for future disasters now.”
Photo:
Srikanth Kolari/ActionAid
By
Amar Jyoti Nayak – ActionAid International Programme Manager, Asia –
International Humanitarian Action & Resilience Team
December
16, 2014 - I remember the Indian Ocean tsunami like it was yesterday. Never
before had I seen such devastation – and I haven’t seen anything like it since.
In
India, nobody had heard of a ‘tsunami’ before, so when they were told one was
coming, they didn’t react appropriately. Even the government had very little
understanding of what the tsunami would be and how to react to the warnings.
And
nor did communities. Three quarters of those who died in the tsunami in India
were women, which was partly because when the waves came, female fisher-folk
were doing what they usually did at that time of day – waiting on the beach for
the fish to come in.
At
ActionAid, we reacted immediately. The morning after it hit we convened an
emergency meeting, and within a day, we had team members in each of the
affected districts in Tamilnadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Andhrapradesh,
conducting rapid assessments of the damage. Next day, one team went to
Andaman and Nicobar Islands for the rapid assessment and to initiate the
Emergency response for affected island communities. This was biggest ever
Emergency Response that Action Aid carried out, covering 5 provinces of India.
I
went to Chennai, one of the biggest cities in India, right on the southern
India coast.
I
couldn’t believe what I saw. All of the houses were destroyed. People
were sleeping on the street. There was a lot of confusion. People were crying
because they had lost their family members.
It
was horrific.
We
needed to talk to people, but they were not in a state to talk. The main
thing I remember from those days is the confusion, the sadness, the
helplessness.
Our
team started putting together information. People had no food. They had nowhere
to live.
We
teamed up with our local partners – most of whom were women self-help groups,
who were made up of community members, which made it easy to reach out to
affected families. They led the response, and we supported them.
Together,
we distributed rice and yoghurt, and other staple food. We reached 25,000
people in our immediate response: women, children, the elderly, people
with disabilities – those who were left out of other relief distributions.
But
I think our most major achievement was the long term work that we did with
communities in response to the issues that the tsunami brought about for them.
One
of the most significant issues was that the Government at the time made a
declaration that nobody could live on the coast, which they said was a
precautionary measure against future tsunamis. This was a major issue for
fishing communities, who depended on the sea and the beach for their
livelihoods.
So
ActionAid collected information on this policy and started discussing with
community leaders and development groups what could be done.
All
of the coastal villages came together to form an enormous campaign they called
is “Sea is life, Coast is right”. This was led by the women in the communities
– women who had joined the self-help groups as part of the emergency response.
They started writing applications and letters to the government - and
eventually, they won. This empowered communities greatly.
The
greatest lesson to be learnt from the tsunami response is that if you empower
people, they will cope with disasters. By working together, the women’s groups
who responded to the tsunami then have the capacity to prepare for future
disasters now. Furthermore, these groups have continued to work together since,
and collectively, they have a stronger voice to bargain with government.
Together, they have achieved great changes. They have fought for women’s
rights, for children’s rights and for the rights of coastal communities, and
they have won.