A soothing salve
Bihar’s ‘river of sorrow’, the Kosi, caused massive destruction to life and property during the monsoons last year. A group of NGO members undertook a unique boat yatra between the embankments to provide succour to the flood-hit. The Good Samaritans also framed their demands into a manifesto, writes Rimjhim Jain

Over 12 lakh people were rendered homeless in the Bihar floods in August last year — Photo Reuters

The Kosi river is rightly called the "sorrow of Bihar" because of the widespread destruction and human suffering it has been inflicting upon the region for a long time.

The monsoon months spell doom for the helpless masses in the region, who are resigned to their fate, and are solely dependent on the state and voluntary support for their very survival.

Although the Bihar floods last August were declared a ‘national calamity,’ and a sum of Rs 1,000 crore was sanctioned by the Prime Minister, none of the villagers has seen the relief promises turn into action. Over 12 lakh people were rendered homeless. Today they feel abandoned by the state.

The task of highlighting their plight was undertaken by Delhi-based Praxis Institute for Participatory Studies, and included several NGOs working in Bihar. These included Gram Bharati, the Mahila Gram Vikas Parishad and Sarvodaya Mandal, as well as other NGOs like HelpAge India.

A group of brave persons undertook a unique journey, which included a perilous boat yatra, between the embankments of the Kosi, to provide relief to hundreds of marooned people, whose land and other belongings were washed away by the ravaging waters of the Kosi.

A group of 20 started from Birpur on the Kushwaha barrage, where the breach had occurred last August, stopping first at Raniganj village, and then travelling on the river up to Mahisi. The group covered three villages in a day, travelling in an ordinary boat. A diesel-engine boat was used for going to only two villages.

The villages covered were located in the districts of Madhubani, Supaul, Saharsa and Darbhanga. They form a part of the 380 villages trapped between the eastern and western embankments of the river. The embankments had been built 50 years ago to confine the river and to provide security from flooding. However, breaches have occurred consistently, including the devastating one that happened last year. It had left vast stretches of Kosi-dependant areas in north Bihar waterlogged.

"Many of the interior villages we traversed were ‘displaced’ villages whose land had been submerged by the constantly shifting Kosi," said Rama Gupta a yatra member from HelpAge. "All that remains of Bela village in Supaul district, for instance, are a few spikes visible above the water," he adds.

Yet, there has been absolutely no rehabilitation effort by the government, lamented the affected people during meetings organised in these villages by the participants of the yatra.

No Member of Parliament or any minister has ever visited these ‘forgotten’ villages nor is there any record, even at the panchayat level, of the number of people, cattle or land lost to the Kosi, rued these villagers.

The boat yatra was a journey into their miserable life and the small group of citizens from various NGOs put together the demands and aspirations of the people of the area into a people’s manifesto.

"We no longer get brides for our sons because girls from other regions refuse to come to this forsaken area," laments Ram Pukar Mandal in Mauja village, Supaul district.

"Most villagers here are landless agricultural labourers from Dalit and Backward Classes, who have been ignored by the authorities and left to fend for themselves against the floods and prolonged waterlogging year after year. Compensation for land lost, if any, goes to the landlords," said Shreya Tripathi of HelpAge.

Yet, the leitmotif of the flood-struck people’s demand was — ‘no relief, we only want our rights’. There has been no development in the area, say villagers. There are no motorable roads to connect the area or even basic amenities like drinking water, medical facilities or schools.

The only primary health centre (PHC) in the entire area is in Kiratpur village in Darbangha district, which has to shift temporarily when it is under water for four months in a year.

In addition there are demands for provision of PHCs, schools, electricity, animal healthcare centres, facilities’ for migrant workers as well as suggestions related to improving the system of local administration.

Along with the people’s manifesto, a youth manifesto was also prepared during the Kosi yatra, based on inputs collected from the community by the representatives of Youth Scouts, accompanying the members of the NGOs.

The yatra also helped different sections of people in the community frame issues that were debated by them during the recent elections. For instance, it was found that not even 10 per cent of senior citizens had got their pension and other old-age entitlements, a major reason behind this was their non-inclusion in the BPL list.

The HelpAge team studied the vulnerabilities of the elderly in the area and tried to find out if they were getting benefits from any government scheme. Sixtyfive-year-old Shiv Narain of Dibraha village in Saharsa district, who was left behind by his family, when it fled the rising waters, is one of the many old persons who has been unable to claim compensation as his entitlement papers were taken away by the family.

"Yet, if the knowledge of these old people is tapped it could be valuable in designing disaster reduction schemes for the area," points out Shreya Tripathi, a member of the HelpAge team. She says many elderly people in the area, like Shiv Narain, spoke of having once grown a variety of rice, now extinct, that floated on the water during the floods instead of getting destroyed and thus provided a constant supply of food.

For the yatra members, who braved dust storms, got stuck in sand banks, lost their way on the river, trekked from the riverbank to villages not connected by road and spending the nights in villages which were not electrified, however, the challenging journey was worth it. "We helped to give marginalised and vulnerable groups along the Kosi an active voice in their own equitable and sustainable development," says Gupta, hoping their effort would launch many more such yatras across the country.

Efforts like the Kosi yatra — valuable in helping communities living in backward regions of the country in articulating and coalescing long-held concerns — are likely to make an impact on otherwise stone-deaf politicians.