The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : They are left high and dry

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Jul 09, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

They are left high and dry

Ramya Kannan

REBUILDING THEIR LIVES: The lack of funds has brought boat building at Kasimedu to a halt. — Photo: S.S. Kumar

CHENNAI: Everyone seems to have overlooked 130-odd boat yard carpenters in Kasimedu, North Chennai, while distributing tsunami relief.

Living in and around Indira Nagar Kuppam in Kasimedu, this community of specialised carpenters suffered no loss of life, but their tools were washed away.

Post-tsunami when State relief did not reach them, they hastily revived their dormant Boat Yard Carpenters Union. With the help of the Unorganised Workers Panchayat Sangh, they brought together 100 members who had lost their livelihood and appealed to the Government for relief.

"It was like performing penance to get our relief amount and one allotment of rations. Even that was sanctioned only for half the people on our list. We shared it and each of us was left with Rs. 1,500," says K.A. Stephen, a boat yard carpenter. His family has been living these past months on the income his wife makes as a tuition teacher.

Others have not been so fortunate. Some of the women sought jobs in the local mill to keep their families going.

It was when Chitra lost her job in the mill that she and her husband, Ganesan, a carpenter, decided to commit suicide. With Ganesan's income drying up following the tsunami, the only means of subsistence for the family of four was Chitra's daily wages. "It was poverty that killed them though the official reason quoted is a domestic quarrel. They used to fight often, of course, but that was because there was no money," says Usha, Chitra's mother.

"Poverty drove them to suicide. We want to help their children (a boy and a girl) but we are helpless," says Christy, a union member. The boat yard carpenters have borrowed heavily in order to get meals on the table during the past months or have taken up small, low-paying carpentry jobs in homes.

They have managed to borrow tools and start building wooden boats, but the boat owners are now unable to release the funds. "Work has stopped. Unless the banks disburse further amounts, we will have to sit idle," Stephen adds.

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