The Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh has rightly stressed that every calamity presents also an opportunity for equipping ourselves to face with greater confidence and competence similar calamities in the future. The Government of India has announced that a Tsunami Early Warning System as well as a National Disaster Management Authority will be set up soon.

Relief measures are in progress on an unprecedented scale, thanks to intensive and extensive efforts by the Central and State Governments, national and international Civil Society Organisations (NGOs), private and public sector industries, academia, mass media and bilateral and multilateral donors.

We are now in a position to begin rehabilitation efforts in three time dimensions:


Relief measures in progress
Image courtesy: Association for India Development (AID)
A. Immediate (January – March, 2005)

• Water, shelter, sanitation, health and revival of livelihoods
• Psychological rehabilitation
• Repair of catamarans
• Achieving convergence and synergy among all on-going programmes with similar objectives (this is an urgent task)

B. Medium term (2005-07)

• Ecological rehabilitation
• Agronomic rehabilitation
• Economic rehabilitation
• Disaster preparedness, mitigation and management

C. Long term (2005-10)

• Strengthening environmental defense systems
• Enlarging opportunities for sustainable livelihoods based on a pro-nature, pro-poor, pro-women orientation to technology development and dissemination.
• Improving the productivity, profitability and sustainability of agriculture and fisheries.

A. Immediate

Psychological rehabilitation
It will be necessary to form teams of men and women psychiatrists and trauma counsellors who can cover the severely affected areas during the next few weeks to bring comfort and confidence to those who have lost their dear and near ones. Fishermen will have to be assisted in overcoming their fear of the sea. Farmers also need technical help and moral support. The professional/counseling sessions could be organised by appropriate civil society organisations in association with Panchayats. Those living in relief camps need particular attention. Destitute women should be rehabilitated in their own community and should not be herded in destitute homes, either old or new.

Livelihood rehabilitation
A Special Food for Livelihood Revival and Eco-protection Programme should be initiated immediately in all the affected areas. Such an open-ended Food for Work Programme, which can be sanctioned for a year in the first instance, should aim to create assets for the Tsunami ravaged families and should not solely be community centred, as in the case of normal Food for Work programmes. The concept of work under this special programme should include items such as:

• Rebuilding houses
• Repairing and building fishing boats and vessels
• Rebuilding jetties, access roads and market yards
• Rebuilding schools
• Rebuilding health care centres
• Establishing day care centres and crèches for children
• Eco-restoration programmes like rehabilitation of mangrove wetlands and reclamation of soils inundated with sea water.

The precise priorities can be developed for each village in consultation with local Panchayats and affected families. It is suggested that about 300,000 tonnes of food grains may be allotted immediately for this special programme, which will allow Tsunami affected families to have access to food while they are rebuilding their lives and livelihoods, as well as essential infrastructure for human resource development. It will be of immense help for these poor people.

B and C. Medium and long-term
These programmes should cover all families along the coast – both fisher and farming families, including the families of those who have no assets like land, livestock or fish pond. They fall under three broad groups.


Coastal forest will serve as speed-breaker of tsunami