The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : `Unorganised workers in tsunami-hit areas ignored'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 30, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

`Unorganised workers in tsunami-hit areas ignored'

Special Correspondent

``Many lacunae in relief and rehabilitation work''

CHENNAI: ``Even after three months neither the Central nor the State Government has taken care of unorganised workers in the tsunami-affected areas. Both the governments are generous in extending relief and rehabilitation operations to boat owners, leaving the workers in fishing allied industries in lurch,'' speakers at a two-day regional consultation on Tsunami — its impact on labour, organised by the National Centre for Labour (NCL), here on Friday said.

They wanted the Government to help them as they were the worst affected. They said this category of workers belonged to the Most Backward Classes and Dalit communities and depended on the fishing industry for their livelihood.

Inaugurating the consultation, Pravin Sinha, senior labour advisor, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), a non-governmental organisation, said there were many lacunae in relief and rehabilitation work carried by various agencies. The relief delivery mechanism was not efficient with the result there were still thousands of families who did not get any relief. He felt that all concerned aid agency groups should come together and share their experiences and make the delivery system efficient.

Jesu Ratinam, convener of the Coastal Action Network, criticised the absence of specific policy for reconstruction and rehabilitation of affected people. The current rehabilitation measure concentrated more on property than on labour. Though workers in 64 allied sectors of the fishing industry were affected, concentration of rehabilitation was only on the main industry. She also attributed the heavy damage to the ``indiscriminate'' development of coastal areas by destroying sand dunes and mangrove forests.

Ruth Manorama, president, National Alliance of Women, regretted that a scientific assessment of the total damage was yet to be made by government agencies. She said relief works were being undertaken in haphazard manner and there was heavy discrimination based on community in extending the relief works.

The secretary of the NCL, N.P.Samy, said the ``strong fishermen and boat owners' lobby'' cornered away the chunk of the aid. Still thousands of labourers had not returned to their jobs and were struggling along with their families.

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