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IX. Recommendations

The rehabilitation and reconstruction process offers new prospects for those affected by the tsunami. People have suffered tremendously, but the Indian government is taking the situation seriously and there is a global effort to help them. The resources provided should be used, wherever possible, to improve the lives of those who survived, not merely restore them to status quo.

Placing human rights at the center of the recovery program is essential to effective humanitarian assistance, sustainable recovery, and accountability. As in other rural communities in India, many of those affected suffer daily from human rights violations, such as discrimination based on gender or caste, and lack of adequate food and health care, which authorities are not moving aggressively enough to address. It thus will be important to make efforts during the rehabilitation process to introduce new approaches to achieving basic rights.  Fresh opportunities to generate livelihood and capacity-building measures should become the norm. Empowering village communities to participate in the decision making process is crucial. Committees set up to ensure such participation should include representatives of marginalized groups such as women, Dalits, other lower castes, religious minorities, children and the disabled. It will also be critical for tsunami-affected people to receive sufficient information to make informed choices about their entitlements, government programs and policies. 

In tsunami-affected areas, the Indian and state governments, as well as nongovernmental organizations and aid agencies and international donors working with these governments, should:

Concerning sustainable livelihoods:

  • Work jointly to ensure the realization of the right of everyone to an adequate standard of living, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and make effort towards a continuous improvement of living conditions by immediately providing fishermen with rapid access to financial aid and compensation as well as microfinance facilities to restore the primary economic activity of the area. At the same time, the government must institute mechanisms to consult with, and adequately compensate male and female landless agricultural laborers, for instance by implementing minimum wage standards.
  • Give greater priority to helping locate alternative livelihoods for those affected by the tsunami. Many daily wage laborers will not be able to work on farmlands that were destroyed when seawater penetrated inland. It is estimated that it will take two to four years for these lands to become cultivable. In that time, daily wage laborers should be trained and provided alternative employment in the rebuilding process.
  • Ensure that women in fishing communities are recognized as workers with equal rights to livelihood-related compensation and aid.
  • Conduct a comprehensive needs assessment before rehabilitation so that compensation received can be used for improvement in living conditions. These can include, for instance, the proper kind of assistive devices for the disabled, proper training for alternative livelihoods and appropriate housing.
  • Promote savings and insurance schemes to encourage long-term well-being of local communities. Members of fishing communities, for instance, typically do not insure their boats and nets.

Combating discrimination based on caste, gender, and religion:

  • Inform communities that caste-based discrimination is illegal and promote dialogue with the ultimate aim of allowing all caste groups to live together when permanently resettled.
  • Monitor and respond quickly to local conflicts between caste groups, such as those between the fishing communities and others, and promote dialogue and negotiations aimed at peacefully resolving differences.
  • Integrate overall national development plans such as universal primary education with local needs and objectives for the fulfillment of social and economic rights. Implement laws and policy related to the protection of the rights of women, the disabled, children, and marginalized communities like Dalits and religious minorities.
  • Establish mechanisms for regular interaction and consultations with members of local communities, especially the most vulnerable so that reconstruction efforts address local needs such as health facilities, schools and improved infrastructure.
  • Ensure equal access to aid by registering men, women, and children individually. Women should be able to collect food and other aid independently from male heads of household.
  • Vigorously investigate and take appropriate legal action against government officials and others who violate legal prohibitions against caste and religious discrimination.

Relating to Protection of children:

  • Integrate local development needs and overall national development objectives such as universal education and protection of the rights of children into rehabilitation plans.
  • Continue the present policy of trying to reunite tsunami orphans with their families before placing them for adoption. While upholding international standards requiring that the best interests of the child be paramount, authorities should make utmost efforts to locate other relatives who are willing and capable of caring for orphaned children, and provide such relatives with assistance where necessary.
  • Take immediate steps to implement alternatives to institutionalization, including foster care and other forms of community-based care, for children whose relatives are unable to care for them or when it is not in the child’s best interest to remain with them.
  • Ensure that children do not fall victim to trafficking or are forced into labor because of economic or social hardships resulting from the tsunami. Measures should include targeted assistance for vulnerable families, particularly those where only one surviving parent is struggling to cope with child-care and earning a living or where extended families and customary care givers cannot afford to provide for their orphaned relatives.

Relating to temporary shelters:

  • Immediately provide safe toilet and bathing facilities at temporary shelters for women and children.
  • Provide health facilities and protocols that ensure privacy, safety, and confidentiality so that women and girl children can consult health care providers without embarrassment.
  • Involve women at all levels in the planning and distribution of food, shelter and economic assistance. Special efforts should be made to identify and help women at risk, such as widows, single mothers, women-headed households or pregnant women.
  • Provide separate shelters for female headed households such as divorced women and widows.
  • Ensure that the government clarifies how long people will remain in temporary shelters so that the shelters do not end up serving as permanent, substandard facilities.

Relating to Permanent Relocation:

  • Ensure that new permanent housing is provided within a fixed timeframe.
  • Consult the local community to ensure that permanent housing is suited to local conditions and balance budgetary constraints with local preferences. The former criterion is particularly important because many of the short term shelters provided to date by government and nongovernmental agencies have been considered inappropriate for local climactic conditions.
  • Provide adequate and fair compensation for land acquired for permanent settlements.
  • Ensure that relocation takes place only after consulting the community and the individuals concerned, including women.
  • Ensure implementation of the government’s plan to issue titles to new houses jointly to husbands and wives, especially at the district and village levels.
  • Provide displaced persons with full, free and impartial information regarding all plans for relocation and resettlement.  Authorities should ensure the full participation of displaced persons in the planning and management of any return, resettlement or relocation process.
  • Protect local communities from forcible relocation by vested interests attempting to obtain beach-front properties for their own profit. In particular, the government of Tamil Nadu should prevent the forcible relocation of families with houses within the 200-meter high-tide zone, because they have been given the option by the Tamil Nadu government of staying if they so wish, but without any compensation for loss or damage of property.
  • Make every effort to ensure that members of fishing communities are close enough to the sea to be able to continue their livelihood and to their boats and nets.
  • Ensure that the permanent shelters are suitable for the needs of disabled persons by including, for instance, ramps for wheelchairs.
  • Consult with local village councils to establish ownership of properties, and compensate losses, of those without clear land titles.

Concerning effective coordination of aid efforts:

  • Strengthen governance systems ensuring transparency and accountability at every level starting with the village councils. This is particularly important because orders issued at the top are often not implemented on the ground.
  • Ensure implementation of government policy that encourages participation of village committees in the reconstruction process. The government should be responsive to proposals and reactions of the village committees to prevent inappropriate interventions by the government, nongovernmental organizations, and bilateral and multilateral agencies.

Concerning rehabilitation policies in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands:

  • Ensure that rebuilding of the local economy, villages and homes is free of political, racial, religious, caste or gender based discrimination.
  • Provide temporary shelters that are in keeping with humanitarian standards and uphold human rights principles.
  • Protect vulnerable groups such as tribal groups, children, women or the disabled from discrimination in the distribution of humanitarian assistance.
  • Ensure that the needs of survivors who have lost their identity documents or proof of ownership of land and property are addressed.
  • Establish mechanisms for consultation with affected communities to protect their rights.
  • Ensure that officials recognize non-traditional forms of ownership when reviewing claims, particularly those of secluded tribal communities.
  • Ensure that there is a comprehensive damage assessment and that all affected individuals receive fair compensation.


<<previous  |  index  |  next>>May 2005