Beings without identity!

I was still occupied with what I read in the UCAN India news edition quoted below, when I set out for my mid day walk. With the best of my efforts, my 35 mm camera, could capture only a silhouette of a Koel. The bright  light covered its identity. 

That is when it struck me that the 10 million people affected by the recent cyclone are in the media light, but each person is only a number, whose identity is submerged in the collective news of devastation. None of us would fully know the real story of each person and its full impact on their lives in the near and far future! They lost their houses, belongings, property, means of livelihood, prospects of survival and perhaps hope of living!

The following was the news item. 

"The Coastal areas in Orrissa could take a year to recover from the devastation of Cyclone Phailin, according to Catholic Relief Services, with some 10 million people affected, many of them homeless.

The toll could have been much worse were it not for mass evacuations, prompting the UN to call India’s preparations for the giant storm a “landmark success story in disaster management”.

In Ganjam, home to more than 3.5 million people, nearly a quarter of a million houses were destroyed and crops have been wiped out with total damage estimated at 30 billion rupees (US$487 million) in the town alone.

In Balasore, the district worst affected by flooding, an estimated 900,000 people have been displaced as vast areas remain under water.

“We need to think about Balasore as water is standing there and creating problems as compared to other places where the cyclone has come and gone and people have started bringing their lives [back] to normal,” said Shumlansky.

People are going back to their damaged or destroyed houses without any belongings, he said, and many have seen their means of earning a living destroyed.

In the small town of Anjirapally, 10km down the coast from Ganjam, some 12,000 fishermen have urged the government to replace or repair their damage, destroyed and lost boats so they can feed their families again."

It is a national tragedy of pain and distress!

I wish, their story and starvation would not be lost in the heat of the political divide and polarised election campaigns we watch in India now, a type of which I have not witnessed since I began to be aware of political happenings in India, for about fifty years!

There are millions living without an identity or an address! They long for us to hear their stories! Their future can be shaped by our goodwill and collective response of generous support!

M.C.Mathew(photo and text)