CRY-Maharashtra Floods Relief Efforts

Updates: 8 Aug 2005  |  10 Aug 2005  |  12 Aug 2005  |  September 2005

Dear Friend,

The torrential rains and floods that hit Maharashtra on July 26 and their aftermath have left many families homeless, with family members missing, no electricity, food, medical aid, medicines, communications, transport or potable water.

Almost a thousand people are estimated to have died in Maharashtra, about half of them from Mumbai. Many more have been injured, lost property and possessions or both. Still more are now at risk from disease, malnutrition, loss of livelihoods and exploitation. The state administration too has largely been ineffective till date. There is a lack of coordination across the arms of the government and also NGO efforts. Children are always the most vulnerable in situations like this. Their rights tend to be grossly violated as disasters have a long term impact on their education, health and overall security.

CRY has learned from its experience with other disaster situations that all too often "the need to help overwhelms the need for help". We have all seen the mountains of unused aid material that pile up in disaster struck areas while the communities' real needs go unaddressed.

Many of you have contacted us seeking to provide help. We are in touch with CRY partner NGOs across Maharashtra to ascertain exactly what their long-term rehabilitation needs are and the support they require for ensuring a 'just' compensation. As soon as we have clarity on the specific requirements we will approach you for your assistance.

CRY's role will be in the realm of building and working with a coalition of alliances, NGOs and institutions for all Maharashtra including Mumbai, to advocate for state responsibility towards all the affected and ensuring equity in the relief and rehabilitation efforts. The broad areas of our role will be to ensure - transparency of information, accountability of the government and participation of the communities in decisions on relief and rehabilitation affecting them - by:

• Advocacy - being an active part of the Coalition to ensure that the people get immediate relief and no vulnerable groups get excluded. This coalition has already put a set of demands to the state government based on the first round of feedback received from the field.
• Being the leading member of the NGO - BMC (Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation) coordinating committee, and along with Yuvak Prathistan, be responsible for coordinating information on relief and rehabilitation efforts with other NGOs for the Central Suburbs (N,S,T wards i.e. Vidya Vihar to Mulund)
• Ensuring proper relief to the rest of the Maharashtra state by coordinating with our partners and alliances.

Even as we respond to the immediate needs of those affected, I believe we must also think about the underlying causes of disasters like these and redefine our attitudes to the communities we live in, our personal priorities and the accountability we demand of our government.

Further, in the outpouring of public grief and sympathy we all feel for victims of a disaster - natural or man-made - it is easy to overlook the victims of the silent, on-going, daily catastrophes of hunger, poverty, exploitation and abuse. Please try not to forget to continue to support the causes and organisations you care about.

With faith and goodwill

Ingrid Srinath
Chief Executive, CRY

We regret we do not have the capacity to accept donations in-kind presently. If you'd like to make a material contribution you could consider directing your support to the Red Cross. Their contact details are available at: http://www.indianredcross.org/wherewework.html

For any further assistance, do write to us at webinfo@crymail.org