The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Nagapattinam News : `Food for work' comes in handy for rehabilitation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 09, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Nagapattinam

`Food for work' comes in handy for rehabilitation

By S. Ganesan

NAGAPATTINAM, JAN. 8 . Even as government agencies are straining their nerves to give shape to a massive rehabilitation programme for the affected fishermen in Nagapattinam district, officials are now seeking to involve local communities in the process.

A "holistic approach" adopted by Supriya Sahu, one of the senior IAS officials deputed by the Government to oversee the relief and rehabilitation works, is one such attempt which seems to have clicked. Ms. Sahu, who has been assigned seven villages in Keezha Veliyur taluk including the badly affected Seruthur coastal hamlet, has managed to persuade some of the fishermen to join the rehabilitation work. The `food for work' programme has come in handy for her in involving the youth and women of the village to play an active role in the rehabilitation of their own community.

Currently, groups of women and youth are engaged in erecting temporary shelters, road works, cleaning of channels and afforestation and other works. These men and women are entitled to a daily remuneration of Rs.54 (including the rice component), thereby giving them some much needed income.

"It was initially a bit difficult to draw the men and women as they were shell-shocked by the extent of the damage caused by the tsunami. Though they have been active and strong, the fishing folks do not know anything other than fishing. They do not know even how to handle a shovel. But we felt that keeping them idle would lead to other problems. It is important to provide them with some immediate means for a livelihood," she says. Gradually, she persuaded some of the youth and women to take up the work for their own benefit. Many of them did so, much to her relief.

At Seruthur alone, about 230 units of temporary shelters are to be established. Already the village youth have erected a shelter to accommodate 20 families.

Ms.Sahu adopts a transparent approach in the hiring process. She visits the village concerned every morning and lists out the number of men and women to be hired for the day for the different works. Her down-to-earth approach and ability to strike a rapport with the affected people has gone down well with the villagers.

"It was largely a matter of infusing confidence and motivating the people. Now there is a good response from the villagers and many of them volunteer to take up the job," she says, adding that says she has just set the process in motion and the effort was intended to keep the youth and women engaged until the men return to fishing.

Ms.Sahu has already arranged for repair of the motors of a couple of boats with the help of a local mechanic. The mechanic, who lost all his kit in the tsunami, was given "seed money' to purchase a fresh set of tools. Two boats were even made to venture into the sea a couple of days back as a token step to infuse confidence among the fishermen. The mechanic is now working on repairing other boat engines, even as the Fisheries Department is expected to step in quickly to provide compensation for the fishermen whose boats and nets were washed away. On Saturday, the process of disbursement of relief was set in motion with a few fishermen being handed over the compensation amount.

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