Rehabilitation of Women Victims of Tsunami

A draft note circulated for reflection by SNEHA, Nagapttinam.
09.02.2005

1. Status of women in the Pre - tsunami context

Gender based division of labour continues to exist in fishing sector. Majority of the women and girl children were engaged in sustaining life and livelihood of their male fish workers through taking care of their basic needs and that of the future generation. Work of the women by and large is not recognized by the State and by the community. Girl children have been subjected to violence while transporting and vending fish. Of late violence within the family has increased and taken new forms, due to spread of alcoholism, consumerist culture and new practices such as dowry. Like in other communities, fisherwomen are over burdened with work, and are responsible for domestic work and childcare. On an average, fisherwomen work for around 18 hours a day.

Women engaged in fish processing and marketing activities

Traditionally, women of fishing communities have been playing important roles in marketing fresh fish, and processing surplus catch for sale at a later date. However, with modernization of the sector, the growth of the industrial fleet and the expansion of domestic and export markets, the situation has fast changed.

Women engaged in cleaning and collection activities in inshore areas and intertidal zones

Thousands of women are working in intertidal areas and inshore zones, collecting crabs, shellfish, seaweed etc. for income and domestic consumption. Their work and incomes are rendered highly vulnerable by increasing levels of pollution and destruction of coastal habitats.

Women responsible for the family and community

Women of fishing communities have crucial roles in the care and nurture of their families and communities. Artisan and small-scale fishermen allege that non-selective fishing deplete and degrade resources and that large catches by large fleets depress market prices. For women of fishing communities, this has often meant a decline in the income available to run the family. And finally, there are many cases where fishing communities have been uprooted and displaced, or face displacement, to make way for ‘development’ (industry, urban growth, tourism…). Ironically, even as fishing communities are victims of environmental degradation, they are now increasingly victims of conservation efforts.

Women as workers in processing plants

Exports markets are highly competitive and the Asian region, with cheap labour and relatively good access to resources, tends to enjoy a competitive edge. At one level, fish processing plants provide employment to thousands of workers, particularly women. However, reports indicate that women tend to be employed in low-paid jobs with low levels of job security, often under poor conditions of work with long-term implications for their health, as has been reported in India

2. Aftermath of Tsunami on lives and livelihood resources of fishing women:

As per the existing legal frame work CRZ notification sets the base for framing any kind of policies with regard to mreconstruction of lives and livelihood resources of for coastal communities in the aftermath of the terrible humanitarian disaster that has affected thousands of kilometers of coastal areas in the Tamilnadu state.

However the coastal zone and its ecology face continuous destruction due to industrial and other commercial activities. These activities deplete and destroy natural resources and habitats and interfere with processes occurring naturally in the coastal zone. Thus the survival of the coastal communities dependent on the resources of these zones are threatened as they are deprived of their very means of livelihood and right to life. These include the right to of livelihood, right to shelter, work to development, food security and sustainable agriculture; right to water, to traditional usage of pathways and common property resources – In the case of coastal communities this means the essential protection of coastal zones and its resources.

What one has to understand is that the state so far has not shown any pro-active role in either protecting the rights of the coastal communities or the coastal biodiversity but serving the interests of the anti- people projects along the coast in the form of shrimp industries, tourist industries, petrochemical parks nuclear power plants etc., The intention of the state to construct permanent shelters for the victims of the disaster has to be seen in the context of the state’s position on amending CRZ to suit to commercial interests.

In the Pre tsunami context, the state did not mark the high tide line. It leveled all the existing dunes, evacuated villages (sangumal village of) in the name of beautification and tourism projects. The present threat posed on the fisher folk is that the state to come out with the data on present land use pattern contiguous to the CRZ and the availability of land for rehabilitation and relocation. There is no data on the changes in the contours of the sea bed, impact of Tsunami and coastal bio diversity, status of groundwater level taking in account the contamination due to salt water intrusion and burial of dead bodies and coastal forestry and parameters for measuring the high tide line. The sea coast has moved inward up to 200mts in several parts of the coastal stretch and still there are many houses which withstood the pressure of Tsunami. Without preparing a scientific base and mapping it with people’s wisdom, the government has gone ahead with shelter policy (GO 25 and 26)(The GO’s are attached).

3. Our position:

» The coast is the primary entitlement of the coastal communities and their usufructural rights to use the beach for landing, drying their nets, drying the fish, housing ice plants and other fisher related activities by the coastal communities primarily the fisher folk mush be reassured.
» As CRZ notification allow the fisher community habitats, existing houses must be allowed as their natural right. The undercurrent set in rehabilitation operations is to capitalize the trauma and the vulnerability of fisher folk. Because fishing is a way of life for them. They have to be near the coast to understand the changes in the direction of the wind, sound of the waves color of the seawater etc. In other word the fishing practices of the community will become irrelevant in the wake of the new housing policy.
» In this context the letter by Thiru R. Santhanam, I.A.S.Special Commissioner and Commissioner of Revenue Administration Department,should be withdrawn.. (Lr.No. OSD(RR)/Relief /2005, dated 19.01.2005 D.O. Lr. No. OSD (RR) / Relief / 2005 dated 21.01.05)
» The government should take measures to reclaim the CRZ zone I from existing encroachments in the form of hotels, resorts, shrimp industries etc.,
» The shelter reconstruction should be owner driven policy where the victim should become part and parcel of the planning and implementing process. The affected family can be assisted in terms of access to material support, grants and technology which is ensuring seismic safety, cyclone safety, wind proofing etc in the backdrop of local geological conditions and traditional wisdom. And the benefit of such construction processes to strengthen the local economy.
» The policy should address to the specific needs of the women and children.
» The housing policy should include the necessary infrastructure like school water sanitation and health centers and it should be provided by the state.
» The government should give up its intention to allow adoption of villages by any individual or agency as it totally disrespects the socio cultural and economic norms.
» Reconstruction should also spell out the concern for dalits and minorities.
» The reconstruction should suit to the livelihood need of the coastal communities.
» Instead of raising a wall of such huge proposition the government can work out plan for coastal forestry like casuarinas, seaweeds artificial reefs or mangroves as cyclone barriers and involve community in the regeneration and management of the coast.
» The governments allocation for individual family for construction shelter must be announced officially in the form of G.O taking in to account the family size, the livelihood needs of the families which may be region specific.
» The panchayat government should be entrusted with the responsibility of dispersing the funds from the state for reconstruction and monitoring the reconstruction process in coordination with the NGOs and CBOs.
» The state should not allow and destructive developments projects in the coast as there is ample evidence to prove that the projects have accelerated the tsunami effect.

This forum recognizes the aspirations and desires and solidarity gestures of different sections of the society. But accommodating all of them in the reconstruction process will end up in undesirable tantrums and ends. They may be facilitated to participate in the relief process. In the long term rehabilitation and reconstruction the developmental organizations who are instrumental in facilitating the mobilization of coastal communities and empowerment process and continue to commit to work on a long-term basis may be the partners with the fisherfolk. The state and central government should build monitoring mechanisms and entrust the Panchayat Government to formulate the norms with local CBOs and development organizations based on the broader guidelines set by the state.

» The government should withdraw the Sethusamudram Ship Canal Project in the post tsunami impacts as this will result in destruction of resource base for fishing community and increasing violence on women.
» The data regarding dead and missing people by the govt needs to be challenged.
» The Tamilnadu state has announced the formation of ‘’Tsunami waves Relief committees at distict panchayat and levels in all the coastal districts.It has to be constituted immediately
» The central government has announced 650 crores for housing(for1.5lakh houses)923 crores for repairing boats buying new boats(subsidy-356 crores and loan component of 566 crores).The loan component should be with drawn and given as 100%subsidy.
» The shrimp farms which are in violation of the CRZ should be demolished.

4. Observations:

1. In a situation like this women’s safety and their needs becomes low priority for the community and the state.
2. Lack of security into the gendered nature of displacement ( relief camps and temporary shelter)
3. Lack of adequate health care to women based on their specific needs.
4. The very neutrality of the thinking on security and livelihood situation actively hindered any interventions that sought to ensure women’s safety.
5. Lack of women’s representation in the committees of decision-making – relief and rehabilitation.
6. Lack of reflection on the effect of Tsunamis on women.
7. Male domiated camp administration (Sanitary napkin, under garments distributed by men.)

5. Recommendations

1. Joint pattas must be issued with regard to Title to permanent houses constructed for tsunami victims. The titles must be given with the proviso that any alienation of the share by the women in favor of man would be, ipso facto considered invalid. Both the gender should have equal rights to inheritance.
2. Based on the principles of gender equity and social inclusion, sustainable livelilihood options must be evolved
3. Women workers in processing vending, auctioning and other fish related activities of the fishing communities must be offered special relief package as they completely lost their livelihood. Interim relief grant must be provided for them till they are able to resume their former economic activities.
4. Enumerations of pregnant women and lactating mothers in the Tsunami affected must be given special relief packages, including full nutritional support all trough pregnancy/ lactation period.
5. The traumatic effect of the disaster on reproductive health must be assessed and special medical care, including necessary scan and psychological counseling must be, immediately, offered to them free of cost.
6. The government should ban liquor, as it will drain the already marginalized economy of fishing communities and end up in more violence on women.
7. The women of the household must be paid relief amounts to fully benefit children and families,
8. In many Tsunamis hit shores, trees and bushes that provided toilet cover for women have been destroyed. Children, who normally went to the water edge for easing themselves, are totally scared of the sea and would not venture near it. So, toilets must be constructed on a war footing to ensure the dignity of women and also for the sanitation of the area. These must be provided even in temporary shelters.
9. Protected drinking water and domestic water needs must be provided to the affected communities.
10. A number of self-help groups had been functioning among women of fishing community and they have been badly hit. The loans of these self-help groups must be written off.
11. Adequate supply of kerosene must be supplied free of cost to resume cooking till normalcy is restored
12. Women rendered destitute by the disaster should be rehabilitated in their own community to the extent possible, providing adequate livelihood security and independent housing to them. They should not be herded in destitute homes.
13. The realms of fish processing and marketing in which the role of women is significant needs rethinking. The opportunity to introduce low cost hygienic fish processing techniques for the domestic market must be seized this will require coastal space, financial and physical investments, demonstrations and training apart from fish drying and curing yards, mobile flakes ice vans ice plants etc
14. Women can be involved in planning and execution of activities to facilitate the formation of bio shield and the benefits of such venture should reach the women.
15. The government should extend worker status to the women workers and they should be ensured all the provisions of welfare board and the benefits of the savings cum relief scheme.

The Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) notification – 1991 enacted to protect the coast and the traditional fisher people who are depending on the coast, sea and the resources, is being continuously amended and diluted to suit the interest of the industrial lobby. There were 13 prohibitions like polluting industries, dredging the fishing grounds, destruction of mangroves etc. Only Agriculture is allowed in the CRZ. However instead of protecting the environment and people, the industrial lobby, the tourism lobby, hotel lobby began to violate the notification and thus clamoring for the dilution of the notification.

As per Clause (d) of sub-rule (3) of Rule 5 of the Environment (Protection) rules, 1986, and all other powers vesting in its behalf the Central Government hereby declares the coastal stretches of seas, bays estuaries creeks, rivers and backwater which are influenced by tidal action (in the landward side) up to 500 meters from the High Tide Line (HTL) and the land between the Low Tide Line (LTL) and the HTL as coastal Regulation Zone; and imposes with effect from the date of this Notification, the following restrictions on the setting up and expansion of industries, operations of processes etc in the said Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ)
For the purposes of this notification, the High Tide Line means the line on the land up to, which the highest water line reaches during the spring tide. The High Tide Line shall be demarcated uniformly in all parts of the country by the demarcating authority or authorities so authorised by the Central Government, in accordance with the general guidelines issued in this regard.

Note:- The distance from the High Tide Line shall apply to both sides in the case of rivers, creeks and back waters and may be modified on a case by case basis for reasons to be recorded while preparing the Coastal Zone Management Plans. However, this distance shall be not be less than 50ms* (*This provision has been struck down by the Supreme Court) 100 meters or the width of the creek, river or backwater whichever is less.

The distance up to which development along rivers, creeks and back-waters is to be regulated shall be governed by the distance up to which the tidal effect of sea is experienced in rivers, creeks or back-waters, as the case may be and should be clearly identified in the Coastal Zone Management Plans.

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