Helplessness!

This blog post is realated to Project Prayas- Relief for Flood Affected Assam.

It was a field assessment day. Early morning on 14th of July 2012, field team boarded a ferry to Majuli(one of the worst flood affected area) from Jorhat in Assam. After reaching Kamalabari Ghat, team directly boarded a taxi to meet Sub Division Officer(SDO) Office of Majuli. After discussion with SDO we found that the requirement of the hour was "Tarpaulins...Thousands of Tarpaulins". Field team decided to visit one of the worst affected area for field assessment. We choose Salamara village for this. Same day afternoon we reached the village,it  was all filled with water. People were temporarily staying on the road which is at some hights. All cattles, livestocks and people were sheltered on road. We started visiting houses,talking to people to understand their requirements,to understand what materials is required most for these flood affected people.

 My eye captured a shed where a woman of around 40-50 age was staring towards us. I appraoched towards her. She had understood the purpose of our visit. I enquired her " What is your requirement aunty?". I was expecting her to say- clothes, tarpaulins, medicines, food etc. But she remained quiet. I repeated my question. With filled eyes she told "We need land, we don't want to stay here". Her reply shook me, I didn't expect this answer. My eyes were filled with tears. I wanted to help her but I was helpless.
   
 On the way back from that place, my mind was only filled with her reply. The area where we visited was flood prone area. This is not the first time they are being affected due to flood. Its perrinial problem there. The woman was correct. She doesn't have problem with flood, she doen't have problem with stagnant water,she doesn't have problem with mosquito bites but she has a problem with LAND. The land where she will not get happiness, the land which took everything she had. She knows she cannot do much to control the mighty Brahmaputra. She has nothing in hand except to leave this place and go somewhere where she can live happily with her family, where she will not have to fear of flood, where she is sure that her cultivation land will not be washed away by flood.
   
 The place that we visited only households poor people. People who are economically sound don't live there. They migrate to better place which is not flood-prone. Other people also want to shift somewhere else. But they are helpless, poverty is their enemy. I (rather, we at Sankalp) feel the sense of helplessness for not being able to solve problem of this woman and many others. We could not give land to this lady and many others but we provided tarpaulins to 1947 flood affected families.Tarupaulins- which can be used for shelter and various other purposes in the village. We are sure that these families are temporarily secured from rain and sun, their cattles have shed now. This is just a bit that we could do during Project Prayas.Mother Teresa has rightly quoted " We can do no great things, but small things with great love". This is just what we could do- only small contribution but with high dedication and love for our people. I take this pariticular project as motivation, there is a long way to go ahead, lot of problems are waiting for us.The hunger to work for Sankalp has increased.