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Including All, Excluding None |
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AIDMI> About AIDMI> Including All, Excluding None
"There is not enough for you. Our resources are limited so we cannot help everyone." This is a common explanation of the exclusion and marginalisation of minorities and disadvantaged groups in India.
The Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004 made the international community open their wallets, almost an unlimited amount of resources were made available and one would think there was something for each and everyone. But surveys and evaluations show that certain groups were not included and did not benefit from these resources. The Tsunami Evaluation Coalition found that "India is the only country where the share of aid commitment exceeds the share of long-term recovery costs". From the total UN and international commitments made, India received $ 1.49 billion, which went mainly to international agencies.
Including all in India's growth is still a challenge for its development and also in its disaster recovery. Especially for women, dalits, tribals, casual labourers and other minorities. AIDMI found in its 2007 flood response in most difficult villages of Bihar that a group of Kanjars had finally obtained a small piece of land where they were trying to settle down after having lived all their lives as a begging nomadic people. Their children were enrolled in the local school. But in class, the teachers did not let them sit with the other kids, nor did they receive the midday-meal. The Kanjars felt excluded (they are excluded) and found it difficult to be respected in the society. Social exclusion has a dreadful effect on the excluded. Their self-esteem and dignity are stolen.
This annual report focusses on the importance of inclusion and how we at AIDMI are working towards the inclusion of today's excluded. We cannot forget or overlook these groups. They make up a large part of the Indian population and have their own capacities to apply in disaster situations. Building on their already existing capacities and hope, AIDMI works with them, providing financial and technological know-how in order to promote disaster risk reduction and long-term development. They have given energy and are often the fastest to recover when resources match their needs.
The above-mentioned example is only one of many in India. Already put on the fringe of society these groups are the most vulnerable to suffer during an emergency. One would like to think that these disadvantaged groups benefit from external assistance, but research and surveys show that the discrimination and exclusion are as vivid in relief, recovery and rehabilitation as in normal times.
As in many other organizations, there are budget limitations and we have chosen to work on a project basis with excluded groups of our society. As we are local and located in India, we are physically, emotionally and intellectually trying to be closer to the excluded. We have a long way to go. Whenever we conduct a needs assessment it is targeted at the most needy and excluded. We prioritise spending the greater percentage of our budget on actual work in the field and less on administrative and non-field related activities. In any disaster response we send a core team to the field that establishes contact with the affected, local authorities, or local NGOs. Firstly, the victims are asked to list their basic needs and then secondly a committee consisting of community-members lead the further relief process with guidance from the excluded. This is not easy.
In 2007, Bihar saw one of the most devastating floods within living memory. At least 23 million people were affected1. Typically, dalit communities are situated in low-lying areas exterior to the main village. Their houses are mostly made of mud and other non-flood resilient materials. As the flow of water in the rivers rose, the dalit communities saw their houses and belongings floating away. Even drinking water relief did not reach all families.
AIDMI's approach is to focus on the poorest of the poor. Every year, when the floodwater has dried up, the fire season starts in Bihar. Houses are vulnerable as they are constructed in inflammable material and have cow dung drying on the roofs. AIDMI responded quickly to a village fire in Navtolia in Bihar where 57 structures housing 400 persons burnt down. In the following food-distribution the poorest and those who had lost absolutely everything—again women, dalits, casual labour— were prioritised. But what AIDMI reached is a smallest drop in the ocean of India’s citizens.
We have to address the fact that millions of people in India are excluded because they are dalits, women, tribals, or casual labourers. National governments often avoid issues of exclusion in bilateral projects to maintain a more egalitarian profile among the international community of nations. The multilateral agencies are dependent upon national governments and cannot step aside and point out who is being left out and why. The international financial institutions seldom include such difficult issues in their project planning and designing consultations to push projects. The efforts taken by the general disaster respondents to include marginalized groups are weak. The excluded wanting to be included are mostly invisible in disaster relief, rehabilitation, and recovery statistics and reports. |
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After more than three years work in tsunami-affected areas in South India, AIDMI's most valuable finding is not identifying the excluded, but in recognising their demand to be included. Being excluded does not mean that the victims are without initiatives. The excluded develop their own response mechanisms with whatever resources they get hold of. This works very well when the resources of the civil society are available and accessible. When the excluded themselves take initiatives, we are inspired. After endless exclusion, they commence to demand their right to be included, having freedom to make their own decisions. That is something AIDMI wants to continue supporting and working for.
- Andreia Oliveira, Arpita Chhatrapati and Linda Sparre, All India Disaster Mitigation Institute, April 2008.
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