Bhuj Earthquake
It shook the entire nation! The trembles are still felt by many a hearts in Bhuj. When most of the countrymen were celebrating Republic Day on January 26, 2001, a devastating earthquake measuring 7.7 on the Richter scale caused an extensive damage to human life and property in Gujarat, leaving 18,640 people dead and 2,00,000 injured, besides damages to houses and property and loss of livestock. The tremble caused high-rise buildings to shake from New Delhi to Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. Reports of aftershocks came in from around the country. The state of Gujarat suffered an unprecedented damage to its physical infrastructure.
The earthquake left almost 45 substations of Kutch and 255 feeders adversely affected. 9 towns and 925 villages were completely blacked out. The water supply in 10 towns of Kutch and 8 other towns of Rajkot , Jamnagar , Ahmedabad and Surendranagar was severely affected.
The road and railway links in Gujarat were also severely disrupted. The railway tracks between Dhrangardhra and Nalia (330 kms.) was seriously damaged and the Surajbari bridge linking Kutch district to Rajkot was also badly affected.
This earthquake was a major set back for the industries as almost 10,000 small and medium industrial units went out of production. The famous handicraft of Kutch district suffered enormously and almost 50,000 artisans lost their livelihood. The tiles and ceramic units in the district underwent severe losses. Education suffered a major set back in the area as almost 1,500 schools were completely destroyed.
Among the worst affected were the elderly, who are usually neglected during times of humanitarian crises. They are especially vulnerable due to their physical frailty and lack of mobility. HelpAge India ’s target groups were th ose elderly who lost kin, home and hearth.
Reacting to the need of hour, HelpAge India immediately moved in with two MMUs, which provided rescue services, apart from dispensing emergency medical aid. Besides dedication, HelpAge was equipped with experience of dealing with disaster situation after cyclone in Orissa. Support was quick to come, as HelpAge International and Help the Aged, UK , mobilised resources from donors such as DFID, EU and DEC.
HelpAge India concentrated on three districts of Gujarat- Kachchh, Surendranagar and Rajkot comprising of the talukas Bhuj and Anjar in Kachchh district, Morbi in Rajkot district and the talukas of Limdi and Wadhvan in Surendranagar district. This has a geographical coverage of 43 villages.
Immediate Concerns
+ Provide services for immediate needs of quake victims such as medical, food, shelter etc
+ Resurrect extensive damage caused to housing stock
+ Provide aid to many roofless, landless people with no means of survival
+ Deal with extensive loss of livestock that severely affected the productive capacity and sustainability of the people
Objectives
+ To reduce the risk of illness, malnutrition and death amongst the older persons and their families in the affected districts
+ To restore stable living conditions among 7500 vulnerable older persons and their family members
+ To create opportunities for income generation and livelihood
+ To increase the effectiveness of humanitarian aid activities in addressing the specific needs of older persons
Relief and Rehabilitation Programmes
HelpAge selected four project partners with the logistic capacity to manage relief operations. The initial relief programme was designed to provide immediate food supplies for a period of 60 days, household utensils, blankets and polythene sheets and targeted 7500 older persons and their families.
MMU ’s (Mobile Medicare Units)
Six MMUs, each with a team of a doctor, a pharmacist, a programme officer and a driver were operational in the affected areas of Bhuj, Anjar, Bhac hau and Rapar. 221 villages were covered and a total of 35,472 patients were treated. On an average, in the first five days of the emergency 150 patients per day were provided with medical assistance and referral services in Kutch district. MMUs provided preventive medicines, antibiotics, water purification tablets, oral dehydration solutions, together with orthopaedic treatment and psychosocial support in collaboration with partner agencies. Wherever necessary, they referred patients to other agencies such as Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF). Special attention was paid to the needs of older patients, who not only suffered physical injuries but were also found to be suffering from anxiety, depression and fear.
Emergency Aid (food and shelter)
The emergency aid packages primarily addressed food and shelter needs. In the worst affected villages, most of the houses were completely destroyed or seriously damaged. People were living in flimsy shelters hurriedly constructed from whatever was easily available. Older people had not received any tents and were living in the open fields or in makeshift shelters made of plastic sheets, sacks and old clothes. These makeshift shelters were vulnerable to wind and dust and it was difficult to cook inside them.
Older people had two main difficulties as far as food and nutrition were concerned. One they depended on others to cook their food and second, they preferred to eat traditional food i.e. bajri rotlo, garlic, onion, chillies and vegetables. When these were not available they tend not to eat enough. The food distributions took account of older people ’s compromised digestive systems and their desire for familiar food.
House Rebuilding Support (Second Phase)
After the immediate relief operation, the focus was shifted to mid-term and long-term rehabilitation of the earthquake victims. One of the long-term needs identified was strong and earthquake proof house. All the houses were constructed with the participation of village community and older persons. HelpAge India provided material for construction but the beneficiaries provided labour to rebuild the houses. Quake-resistant houses were built based on a mix of traditional and modern technology. Houses were constructed on those lands where the beneficiaries had authentic land records.
Income Generation programme
As a result of devastation, many older people lost their livelihood support and were left in economic distress, and were perceived as disabled, unproductive, and burden on family. HelpAge India implemented the Income-Generation-support programme with the aim to change this negative stereotyped image and to establish more balanced view of both older persons ’ needs and capacities. This programme raised income status of older persons and thus had a positive impact on th eir lives.
Achievements Economic
Distribution of food commodities to 7500 older persons and their families provided them with food security that helped them to move from relief to rehabilitation continuum. This, as per the analyses available, provided them with a net savings of approximately Rs. 2500.
Restoration Of Dignity
The timely distribution of relief items has revived the livelihood resources of older persons. They felt respected and empowered as they received all the distribution items among themselves.
Cohesion of Families
There have been observations made that with the rising capacities of the older persons of having substantial dry rations and a provision of immediate food to meet the daily needs, led to an increased decision making capacity and brought back members of the families who had earlier left the older persons to care for themselves.
It was observed that in all the areas where HelpAge relief and rehabilitation programme was implemented older people enjoyed enhanced respect and security from their family members and from the community as a whole.
Looking Forward
This experience has proven that the response to emergencies can best emerge if there is a proper planning process between the implementing partners and its staff to show the logistics of supporting a particular activity.
The NGOs that HelpAge partnered with were very popular among the community they were working with. This is one of the reasons why these agencies had the support of the community either by their earlier presence or through their short-term association during the earthquake. This was important as it enhanced the delivery mechanism of relief items, which somehow had failed during government ’s distribution of relief commodities and other agencies that had attempt ed to do direct deliveries. It was also an opportunity for learning about the need for the local staple food, which was slightly different from that which had been listed in the original planning. The national and international level agencies distributing relief items mostly included foreign food items, which were not locally acceptable.
The participatory approaches adopted in the process of planning, needs identification and intervention went a long way in ensuring that the objectives of the programmes were met. Consulting older people about their needs has been a key to HelpAge India ’s immediate response. Listening to them has been a crucial assessment tool in determining their need as well as assuring that immediate relief items provided were adequate.
Another very important long term need identified was livelihood support. HelpAge India coined a new programme of micro credit under PERPUEG (Post Earthquake Reconstruction Programme European Union Gujarat) which is a European funded livelihood restoration programme. It was realized that relief based developmental efforts can only help people in the short term but for long run, it should be linked with some income generation activities. Moreover, such activities would provide people an opportunity to come together and help themselves.
Under PERPEUG, HelpAge aims to organise 1000 elderly women in almost 63 Self Help Groups. Main stress has been given on aspects like group formation and affinity, concept clarity, group strengthening and capacity building. Indicators have been set to review different stages of the groups ’ formation stage, development stage and maturity stage.
It is the strength of our convictions and actions that has touched the hearts of many people. More and more people have joined our journey to alleviate suffering and pain. Our care has expanded from a few people to thousands in order to support all those in the world who suffer. Your inspiration encourages us to plead the cause of compassion. And we will continue doing that.
