Vedaranyam (Tamil Nadu): For the first time in her life, 62-year-old Selvarani* stepped out to protest on the morning of November 18, when hundreds of people from her village Sempodai near Vedaranyam occupied the main road to protest ‘government apathy to their plight’ after cyclone Gaja.
“I came to this place in 1977 after getting married,” said Selvarani. “We had a major cyclone that year too. But we were treated far better than this.”
It’s been four days since Selvarani and her villagers have had a decent meal. “We have not had drinking water for three days now,” a protestor said. “The government has given us rice in the camps. But without water, how can we even cook?”
Selvarani said there are about 3,000 families in the village. “Except for those who live in concrete houses, which are few, all of us have lost our homes. My husband is bed-ridden. I was running the family by selling lemons and tamarind in market. We have lost all the trees which were the source of our livelihood.”
But what upsets them most is the apathy on clear display by the government. The protestors allege that the government machinery is reaching out only to villages on the main road. “No effort has been taken to reach the interior villages,” Selvarani said, pointing to her dilapidated house. With the thatched roof giving in, Selvarani’s family has taken refuge at their neighbour’s place, which is made of concrete. “The women of our villages hardly come out for protests like this, but this is about our life,” she said.
Sempodai’s problem is not an isolated one.
On November 18, in the 50-kilometre stretch between Nagapattinam to Vedaranyam, several villagers blocked the roads at several spots to protest, alleging that the government was not taking proper post-disaster measures. Their demands included basic facilities like food and water, and a proper assessment of damages. With phone lines and power supply cut off, some of the villagers demanded generators.
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The villagers are also infuriated by the alleged interview of local MLA and minister O.S. Maniyan in which he apparently sought to play down the damages caused by the cyclone. “The government told us that it was prepared and that we will be safe. It has been three days since cyclone hit us, but there has been no help. The minister has not even visited us, how will he know there has been no damage?” asked T. Selvakumaran, from Naaveluthapathi village where 4,000 families live. “We have lost our livelihoods, but for now what is more important is we need to save our lives” Selvakumaran said.
Unconfirmed local reports say that the anger has brimmed to such a point that the minister was gheraoed in one of the villages and his car was smashed.
“If they could visit each and every house of this village during an election, why couldn’t they do the same after a disaster?” Selvarani asked.
Soon after, the government immediately went into a damage control mode with district sub collector Kamal Kishore visiting the villages where the protest had broken out to give out assurances.
But the cyclone, which had initially inspired memes on social media for its initial ‘inactivity’ , has wreaked havoc in coastal villages too. In villages like Aarugaatuthurai, a number of boats have been wrecked. “It will take lakhs to repair them, we can’t even begin to think about going back to normal lives now. Our first priority would be to set this right,” a fisherman from Aarugaatuthurai said.
Devanai, 45, in Kodiyakarai, was too shocked to coherently recount her Gaja experience. “We are from Chinnangudi (a village approximately 100 km away from Kodiyakarai). We come to Kodiyakarai in the November, December and January to fish because during those months, the tides are worse near home. We have just come to Kodiyakarai, set up our hut and this happened,” she said, pointing to their wrecked boat.
Her family, including her husband Munusamy and three sons, had come to Kodiyakarai with two boats and four engines. “We have not even made few thousands yet here, but we have incurred losses running into several lakhs,” said her son Aakash.
Also read: 11 Dead in ‘Severe’ Cyclonic Storm Gaja in Tamil Nadu
“The impact created by cyclone Gaja certainly is deeper than we could imagine. Livelihoods of thousands of villagers have been destroyed. The government is still not in control of the situation. It is not just enough if the government issues warning, there is more to what the government should be doing,” R. Sindhan, an activist with CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu, said. “We thought Gaja was not as bad as Ochki cyclone, but I am afraid we might lose to hunger and apathy, what have saved through sufficient warnings on the cyclone.”
Sindhan also points out that the absence of local body representatives has made things worse in terms of relief and rehabilitation work. The local body elections due in October 2016 has not been held due to legal issues and later delimitation process. “The government was merely doing coordination work, but with no local body representatives even that could be difficult.”
Kavitha Muralidharan is an independent journalist.