The Hindu Business Line : No charity please

Lakhs of tsunami victims all over India have generated a lot of compassion and generosity, but with public memory always being short, the crucial question is how long would the handholding last. In this context, Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust's (BYST) small, but thoughtful, gesture in coming forward to think of long-term rehabilitation of some fishing families whose boats and nets were destroyed by the tsunami waves on December 26, gains importance.

Take the case of 30-year-old T. Ramesh. His house, on the first floor of the Tamil Nadu Housing Board tenements, off the shore in Santhome, Chennai, was left untouched on that fateful day. But like most of the 100-odd fishing families in Bhavanikuppam and Doomingkuppam, his fibre glass boat, fitted with a diesel engine and costing nearly Rs 1 lakh, as well as fishing net, kept on the shore, were tossed around so violently by the killer waves, that they cannot be redeemed. This means that his family of five — including parents, wife and six-month-old baby — face a grim and dismal future. As there has been no loss of life in families like his, there is no question of immediate cash relief. For the moment he has received 60 kg of rice and Rs 2,000 in cash from the government. But this will not last forever.

Leave alone the lack of fishing equipment, for the time being Ramesh and his other colleagues are too petrified to return to the sea. "It is not as though we have not seen violent forms of the sea... my father was also a fisherman and we've seen many ugly storms and cyclones in the sea in the past... But we've never seen the waters of the sea coming onto the land with such ferocity to destroy whatever we had. It will take us a while to go back to the sea," he says.

But fishermen like Ramesh or A. Kumaresan, also from the same area, are sure of one thing. They do not need charity; they need a helping hand to ensure that they get another boat and another pair of fishing nets, to help them resume their occupation when they are mentally and psychologically ready to face the ocean again.

It is fishermen like these that the BYST has made a special effort to identify and give loans to pick up the threads of their lives and go ahead with their work. Says Joseph Ajit Kumar, Field officer of BYST in Chennai, "We approached these fishermen after the tsunami, and asked them not about relief which was pouring in, but rehabilitation on a long-term basis. They told us that they need loans to buy boats and nets."

BYST's mission is to identify young Indian men and women who have some entrepreneurial skills or aspirations, and give them loans up to Rs 50,000, and more important, a mentor in the same industry, who can counsel them on how to use the money and help them crack the impediments that invariably crop up in any venture.

Says Sara Chanda, a BYST committee member, "Normally we charge an interest of around 12 per cent, but in this case, we will not only reduce the interest but also give them a holiday period. More important, we are making a special effort to identify the women in these families, who take to the market the fish caught by fishermen. Right now they have no occupation either and we're trying to see if can help them form self-help groups and start small shops to sell snacks or whatever else they can make. We can give out at least 50 loans and the YWCA is doing a survey to help identify eligible beneficiaries."

Kumaresan points out that Rs 50,000 will not be sufficient to buy a boat and a net, "but two or three of us will get together to pool the money and buy maybe a second-hand boat and a set of nets. On that fateful morning, his boat too was dragged by the waves and tossed against stones and is now beyond repair. He too is scared to venture into the sea, and says, "Anyway, right now people are not buying fish because there are rumours that the tsunami waves contaminated fish in the sea. So what is the use of going out at all?"

But at the same time such fishermen's families are faced with a piquant problem... the absence of fresh fish from their food. As Ramesh points out, "We used to eat fresh fish with every meal and are fed up of the sambar sadam (sambar rice) and thayir sadam (curd rice) that we've had to eat in the last 15 days."

He shakes his head when it is suggested they could occasionally buy fish from the market. "Oh no, that would be iced fish; and having eaten absolutely fresh fish all these years, we can't stand iced fish!"

There is meaning in Sara's appeal to "banks and corporate houses not to give donations but come out with loans which will be far reaching, because these are people who have lived with dignity and don't want or need charity." Both Ramesh and Kumaresan have a colour TV, gas stove and other amenities at home; Kumaresan even has a cell phone, which he of course does not take to the sea, as he is afraid of the water spoiling the handset.

Ironically, as Jayakumar, a local leader who heads a Rotarian fishing community initiative, points out, the tsunami tragedy has shattered the fishermen's confidence not only in the sea but also what it could do to loved ones on the land. No fisherman wants to leave behind his wife, children, or parents and venture out, because the devastation they saw on land has shattered them."

Kumaresan wants to go back to the sea, but his family "will not let me go at least for one or two months... . But if I listen to them, what are we going to eat," is his helpless question.

Response can be sent to rasheeda@thehindu.co.in

Pictures by Shaju John

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