A Report on my Visit to Saharsa

I was jolted out of my inertia when I stepped out of the Saharsa railway station on 22nd of September. A lot of people had taken shelter just outside the railway station and I observed that a few organizations were offering food to the people, who were affected by flood. The gravity of the situation hit me hard. My discussion with the state coordinator of AID, Mr. Dharmendra Kumar & his team made me realize that the problem was huge than what I imagined. And it grew bigger in my mind with each day passing. I visited areas that were reachable by small boats only. The receding water posed challenges to mobilize relief work as big boats could go ony in limited areas.

The solace was that organizations like AID INDIA, Goonj and others were present in full pledge. In many instances, they were supporting the government’s efforts but in most of the cases, they were working in areas where government’s machinery was not active or chose not to go. In any case, the effort put together by all agencies including the government was not enough to satisfy the needs of the flood-affected people.

It was a shock to me that almost after one month of the deluge, the district administration held a meeting with NGOs and other agencies involved in the relief work. I could feel that the concept of mega camps was ok but it catered to about 20-25 % of the affected population. People were not able to move far away from their marooned homes and would take shelter at the nearest possible location. This segment was catered by the NGOs in common. I worked as a volunteer with AID INDIA, which had a very effective network to reach out people at the ground level. Volunteers from amongst the villagers were selected for identifying people / families needing the help most. Apart from distributing relief materials collected on its own, it also acted as the distribution arm of Goonj. In fact, they were quite happy to assist a group of businessmen from Mumbai in distributing relief materials.

We were at a stage where medical help is critical to prevent various diseases from taking the shape of epidemic. Cases of water borne diseases, cholera have been reported and it’s expected to go up in number. AID was instrumental in bring a team of doctors from Lions club Chennai. The doctors with adequate medicines were taken to areas where medical relief was yet to reach. A child specialist doctor from the Chennai doctors team, spent 10 days in the field with medicines and attended a lot of kids. The medicines were also stored for future use. The government has enough stock has asked NGOs to take medicines from the government stock whenever required.

Talking of kids, Pratham is playing a stellar role in organizing a learning environment for kids in camps and else where. It was an eye opener for me that people are working with dedication to educate people at the grass root level.

The relief work seems to be a long drawn process and we need to be prepared for the same. The winter is not far off and blankets would be required soon. And the true recovery shall be when the farmers can start living on their own. We have a long way to go.

I must congratulate all the NGOs and especially AID INDIA, who took me as a volunteer for the good work contributed.

Regards
Vivek Prasad, Delhi
+91-9810677081