the floods in bihar

With television images in every household nationwide relentlessly replaying the horrifying aftermath of the breach in the Kosi river embankment- the agony of the bereaved; struggle for survival for the people of Bihar is quite evident. The poignant scenes moved all of us in “Nishkam”, the Social Service Club of Career Institute of Technology & Management, Faridabad. In the first week of September, three of the students including myself set out for Bihar by train to make an earnest effort to help out our beleagured countrymen.

As we approach closer to the Saharsa district in Bihar, the images from the train at first sight are stark, poignant and very much drowned in despair. As we moved out of the Saharsa railway station, long queues of people and various announcements at the relief camps caught our attention. Relief camps at the station in the Saharsa city set up by some of our Big names in the country aren’t really worth appreciation. All these so called noble gestures by these people are meant just to boast off in the media that we are doing something for the people of our country. But a closer look at the situation in Bihar would explain that these camps set up around 60-70 km away from the real flood affected areas serve no good purpose. Talking to some of the locals around the place who have lost everything from their household goods to their families, you tend to comprehend that these camps which have been set up in the city more or less exacerbate the problem. Daily wage earners have quit their jobs and as we say there are no free lunch but a plethora of free lunch awaits them at the Saharsa station in Bihar. Walking down the lanes of the Saharsa city, we reach Khadi gram, place where many NGOs from various parts of the country have set up their bases. Next step for the day was to purchase whatever we could from the 27,000 rupees collected by us. We bought 3.5 quintals of Chiwra,24 cartons of biscuits and the rest was more or less dedicated to the requirement placed by the local doctors for medicines to the amount of approximately 11 thousands for the flood affected areas. Many of the other organizations and entrepreneurs across the country had donated in large quantities relief material such as Dal, Sugar, Rice, Match sticks etc. So the obvious way for the night was to make packets for all these things making sure that every packet contained each of the necessities in right amounts. Lacking much needed manpower, we ended up packing around 250 packets of 10 kg (approx.)each.

Next morning we had to leave for a site visit to a village in Supaul district with all the packets following us in a tractor. Reaching near the Supaul district, we could see something very obvious and the only way out, large diaspora of people with their animals moving to places higher in height. Undeniably, the reality has been much more grim than projected by the media. Certainly, no political or social arguments can validate the premise that people of Bihar have been totally devastated and ruined with everything lost but yet in hope of something good. Some of the other sights worth mentioning- people have stayed back along the roadside, living in U-shaped huts made of bamboos with black sheets of polythene given by the government to cover it up from above. But something which neither do people nor the authorities understand, Black sheets would tend to provide more heat inside the huts than any other material. Walking across the flood waters, we reached a village in Supaul district where no relief work had been done previously; talking to local heads, we arranged for a place from where we could distribute the various packets efficiently. By the time the tractor landed up in the village, we managed to interact with flood-affected victims. Children have been orphaned, women and men have been widowed, every necessities of life have been swept away by the floods; many have lost their savings which they planned to put in use for future. Loss hasn’t been just monetary or family, flood of this magnitude has been able to strike fear at the deepest level of the psyche. Unquestionably people have apprehensions of such a flood happening again in the near future, many plan to flee from Bihar to other places, many would resolve to unscrupulous means in the fight of survival and the rest may have to give in to their fates.

In the hope of getting some relief material, there was a sudden surge in the activities of the crowd breaking the long lull. Suddenly, one of the person from the crowd came running to the local head, telling him that his wife is pregnant and may deliver anytime soon, so if he could send someone for help to the nearby medical van provided by one of the state governments. But to my horror, straightaway came a NO from them telling its not their duty to work everywhere. It was a shock & the stark truth. They seem to know only one place to work i.e. under the glare of the media so that they can boast off in the media about their initiatives. Fortunately for all, as we learnt later, the child was delivered safely and the mother too was safe. Although such sights make you feel depressed and disheartened but that’s how the work in the government hierarchy goes on!

Another 20 min,& the tractor came with all the 250 packets that we packed in the night. All in all, now came the toughest task at our hands, distributing the packets to the people in an organized and efficient manner. We already had a word with some of the local people who could volunteer in the distribution. We set off in a nice manner with people queuing up with counterfoils provided to them by the NGO working there. Basic need of providing with counterfoils was to check that nobody gets the relief material for the second time until and unless everyone out of them has got once. During the distribution, which took place for more than an hour, a sight that shook me off in the deepest of my emotions was when a small child of around 6 years of age came running to the podium where we were distributing the material. When asked he told that his parents had been swept away in the floods, & that he was hungry and needed food. I wasn’t sure whether giving him raw material would do any good. Luckily someone from the crowd recognized the boy, being his neighbour& he promised us to give him food provided by us.

After the packets started to disappear among the crowd, people started to climb over each other to get their share in the relief material. Hoping for the best, we somehow managed to disburse all the material among the crowd, avoiding any of the awkward situations expected.


Glimpses of the work carried out by SSCC volunteers in Bihar



The day ended with some of the people happy to get relief material which would help them survive the calamity, some in the hope of getting some more soon, some angry with what we had planned for the day.



It has become imperative now to realise that we should not only just sit & gaze at our television screens, pouring pity on the people who have suffered unbearable loss & pain in such a calamity wishing we could do something about it, but do all that one can do. Otherwise no difference would be evident enough between us and some of our politicians who have nothing more to do than just play blame games and keep on &on with their rhetoric speeches. Time has come when we the people of India should come together and stand by our fellow citizens to help them out & pull them out of such a misery. They need you!, everyone of you!!



-Rajat Yadav,Final year Engineering