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Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

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National

Trauma grips these fisherwomen

By Kausalya Santhanam

CUDDALORE, JAN. 8. The women in the fish markets of Cuddalore in Tamil Nadu dropped their baskets when they heard that the tsunami had struck and rushed to their homes on the seashore. The fish lay strewn in the markets till the municipal authorities cleared the place.

Days after the disaster, the fisherwomen are trying to piece together the scattered remnants of their lives.

Amudha's eyes look enormous in her gaunt, young face as she lies on the bed in a hospital. The anxious gaze of her husband follows her every movement. Amudha is torn by grief and guilt. She had helplessly watched both her children, aged one and three, slip out of her hands into the waters as the waves lashed her house.'' The wall collapsed. When I gained consciousness, I was here. But my children are gone,'' she moans. Her husband carried her for miles and admitted her in hospital.

Sixteen-year-old Thamizh Rani sits in the hall of the just-inaugurated Government child care centre oblivious of the little ones who play and laugh around her. She is shell-shocked as she has lost her parents to the angry waters. ```Can I have the photos of my parents' ``bodies ?''' she asks the Government authorities who took the pictures for the purpose of identification. Her eyes are like dead pools and she seems to be continually reliving the horror when her home and world came tumbling down.

For 11-month-old Abhinaya's grandmother too, the experience has been highly traumatic. While she picked up the child and ran for safety, her 23-year-old daughter darted into the opposite alley and was washed away.. Having witnessed his wife's death, her son-in-law is very disturbed and in no position to care for his children.

The tsunami has affected women of all ages. It has left behind mothers shattered by guilt, widows who have to start thinking of ways to survive, teenagers racked by denial and trauma and old women who are suddenly burdened with responsibility in their final years.

The majority of the women belong to the fishermen community. In a swipe the sea has taken away all their material possessions as well as the security of a familiar tenor of living. ``Our houses are ruined, our cooking utensils are gone.'' Ten days after the tragedy, the merchants association has declared a day of mourning for the victims. The fish market in the Old town is as lifeless as a cod on a slab.

The fisherwomen you meet are in tears. It is they who buy the fish when the catch comes in from the sea and sell it, either in the markets or vending their way through the villages. A group which has gathered at the Collectorate is desperate. ``People say they will not buy fish for six months for fear of cholera. We know of no other occupation. Only the government can help us,'' they sob. ``Our children are now afraid of the sea and don't want to be fishermen. They should be educated and taught other trades,'' say Then Mozhi and Vijaya.

The Collector of Cuddalore, Gagandeep Singh Bedi, agrees that the women have taken a greater beating than the men in the district. Fifteen thousand women have been affected by the tragedy in various ways. Three hundred and twelve women, 121 men and 170 children lost their lives here .. ``The district administration took speedy action in setting up relief camps and community kitchens,'' he says.

But normalcy cannot be restored with the wave of a wand. Months of counselling are needed for women like Amudha and Thamizh Rani who are haunted by loss. The visiting team of psychiatrists from the Institute of Mental Health, Chennai says it is important to ensure good physical health, social support, food and shelter for the traumatised. Experts from SCARF will help train local NGOs and leaders of self-help groups in counselling. The orphaned girls and the destitute women need to be protected from being sexually exploited. The first priority is to construct houses so that the women will have privacy to at least change their clothes, say activists. And toilets too have to be constructed speedily, points out the Tamil Nadu State Commission for Women as the trees and bushes that provided toilet cover on the coast have been destroyed. Fisherwomen's self-help groups have been badly hit and so their loans must be written off. Liquor shops have been shut down at least temporarily as the men may blow the relief money on liquor, it adds.

Homes modelled on the Cheshire Homes can bring women who have lost their families and orphaned children together so that they are mutually supportive, suggests a leading women's activist. Avaricious relatives are clinging on to children and adolescents hoping to benefit from the lakhs of rupees that the Government has announced as relief amount for them. Safeguards have to be built in so that these children are not exploited, feel social workers.

As you leave Cuddalore a couple of days later, there is a definite improvement in the situation. Almost all the relief camps set up by the government in wedding halls and schools have been wound up. The process of rehabilitation is on as the beneficiaries are being sent back to the villages. The women have proved resilient.

Despite the betrayal by the sea, the women long for the men to return to the water as their life is inextricably interwoven with the rhythm of the waves and the fabric of their fishing nets.

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