ECONOMIC ASPECTS
'Quake shatters Gujarat's artisans' (Times of India, ?
)
Bhujodi, which has produced seven more national award
winners and is home to the country's finest shawl-making, hardly has a home standing.
The January 26 earthquake has brought the houses down, left the looms broken,
shattered dreams and affected a tradition Gujarat was proud of. As many as 180 families of
weavers have been affected by the quake with few looms still running here.
'I had five looms. They were all destroyed when the wall of my workshop collapsed.
The 15 persons working on them are now jobless" says Vankar Dayabhai, another
national award winner.
…."The earthquake has affected about 500 families of weavers in villages
like Bhujodi, Kotai, Kukma, Bhimrao Nagar and Mota Bandra.
Quake destroys Kutch's artistic tradition (Times of
India )
Thousands of colourful mirror pieces, billed
embroidery materials, accessories and gift articles lie scattered in the verandah of
Raniben Furia's destroyed single-storey building at Dhamadka village in Bhuj.
This village which won several national awards for intricate colourful embroidery,
mirror works and gift articles, today stands reduced to mere rubble with almost 70 percent
of the artisans feared to be dead.
In the entire Kutch region, more than 3000 aritsans are feared dead and the
industry seems to be in trouble.
"With this erosion of the Kutch heritage, the future of all of us is in
question", Rani Furia said.
A majority of artisans in this village had business arrangements with international
and domestic handicraft organisations for sale and display of the famous Kutch work the
world over.
"I have lost my entire life's earning and my daughter, who was an expert in
the mirror work and embroidery,", Babubhai Gala said.
Estimating a loss of more than Rs 50 lakh, Gala said all his business contracts
would diminish because of the large-scale devastation.
He is not the only one. The village was a hub of these small scale industries,
managed mostly by women, and was exporting art and design through fellow Kutchhis based in
the USA, the UK and the Middle East.
Many world famous establishments of this intricate art industry have been destroyed
and Babubhai is now busy collecting his leftovers to migrate to distant Rajkot.
He said, "it hurts when the very government that conferred on me several
awards has not even set a team to rescue those trapped under the debris."
Nearby is Bhujodi village which has the internationally famous 'Shrujan', the
state-of-the-art non-stop shop for Kutchhi embroidery items.
With over 150 artisans in the village now dead, shop owner Meghji Bhabadia is
trying to motivate a few of his rescued artisans to resume work.
"I have lost business worth lakhs of rupees. But how can I stop my work? I
will go insane if I let this destruction affect me," he said.
Luckily, Bhubadia's family is safe, but his manufacturing unit has been completely
destroyed by the quake.
Tears swell in Jamuna Ben's eyes as she describes her mother-in-law's death and expresses
her inability to resume embroidery work.
"The quake has not only disabled me but rendered me jobless…I will never
be able to hold the needle again," she said in a choked voice. (PTI)
SEWA to provide livelihood to over 15,000 artisan
families(Times of India,17-02-01)
Self Employed Women's Association engaged in relief
operations in the quake ravaged Kutch has chalked out a livelihood security programme for
over 15,000 artisan families in Kutch and Patan.
….According to a pre-feasibility report prepared by SEWA researchers, over 145
villages of Nakhtrana, Lakhpat, Anjar and Abdasa inKutch, Radhanpur, Santalpur, Sami,
Harij, Vav and Tharad in Patan district and Dhrangadhra, Patdi and Halvad were worst hit
by tremors and artisans were living in pitiable condition. Therefore, SEWA had decided to
help artisans earn their livelihood, through traditional crafts.
' How can those hands which only used to give can rise
to beg? (Bhaskar, 11-02-01)
They have lost everything in 26th January earthquake,
still their hands are not rising to beg. 'It is okay if some one gives on his or her own,
but we will never beg'. This is the story of a once prosperous colony near Bhuj, whose
each house was not less than one crore rupees worth. Today only 18 people have survived
out of 800 people
…In spite of all this, Gujaratis are worth
appreciating. They have a philosophy - 'Whatever had to happen has happened. We will make
new things.
Barbers in Bhuj help survivors make a clean break with
the past. 'Business has been good. People are remembering religious responsibilities. But
could we have some shaving cream, blades please' (Indian Express, 5-02-01)
They may have lost their loved ones, their homes in
the quake, but Bhuj's barbers are not among those queuing up for relief. Instead, blade
box by their side, they are busy conducting the traditional Hindu ritual of mundan, or
tonsuring.
"The last three days have been very busy. My hands stopped working for just 10
minutes to eat lunch. Otherwise, there's no end to it", says Qasim Hamir Khalifa.
'Everybody wants to conduct this ritual within 12 days of the death of their relatives.
It's very important," he adds.
Since their shops are now rubble, intrepid barbers have propped up chairs by the
roadside…..In Sukhapar, seven kms away from Bhuj town on the road leading to
Nakhatrana, people are queuing up for mundan. Khalifa, in fact, has set up his makeshift
shop just outside his one-time home, now a pile of concrete debris.
…..Another group of four barbers have set up shop beneath a polythene tent.
"We are not asking for anything. Anybody who has any rokhda (money) pays. It's not we
who demand, says Praveen Hareji. There's a shortage of shaving blades in town, he
complains. "there are so many people still left for mundan that we need boxes of
blades. If the government could arrange for shaving blades and shaving cream with the
relief, we won't charge anything at all".
….in the first week after the quake, there was so much chaos that nobody
thought of mundan. Now as life comes back to normalcy, people have started remembering
this religious responsibility". …. "I have come for a mundan so that her
soul rests in peace, What else can I do?"
400 SMEs in Kutch left to fend for themselves (Times
of India, 13-02-01)
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kutch are once
again facing the acid test. Lessons learnt in the aftermath of a killer cyclone in 1998,
proved helpless, this time, in the face of an earth-shattering quake. With facilities
telling tales of destruction, these units are left with no option but to calculate the
resultant increase in damages - from the approximate Rs 80 crore then, to a whopping Rs
500 crore now.
And this time round, with international focus on bigger entities like IFFCO, Kandla
Port Trust (KPT) and the Annapurna Salt refinery, the 400-odd SMEs in the region are left
to highlight their personal casualties all by themselves.
Units, which had been adding to the industrial image of the region till the death
knell rung on January 26, are today at a loss on how to bring together the disjointed
parts. All the five salt refineries and salt works belonging to the private sector lie
damaged and unattended. An assortment of hotels, small enterprises and packaging units,
the middle-level industry here ceases to function, trying desperately to cope. About 12
hotels in Gandhidham, including deluxe and 3-Star ones, have also lost much of their
pride.
….. Doles, subsidies and cash incentives are not what these enterprises want.
Instead, what they call for is the government to lend them a helping hand, to help
businesses from outside set up shop in Kutch while supporting those hurt to recuperate at
the earliest.
And taking up their cause is the Gandhidham Chamber of Commerce and Industry
(GCCI), carrying with it mandates of all Kutch associations. According to GCCI
spokesperson Anil Kumar Jain, most of the aid reaching the region is being used up in
consumption. "There is a clear danger of the entire aid getting used up in
consumption rather than replenishing what is lost, i.e. capital. While the private sector
and the NGOs can join hands to take up physical reconstruction of the region, the
government can take some fiscal measures which could achieve the higher objective of
economic rehabilitation," he says.
…… And adding to the woes of many such units has been the May 1 decision
of insurance companies delinking earthquake cover from the main policy. "This came in
the form of an add-on cover which interested parties were to purchase," adds a
chamber representative.
Post-Latur syndrome at work again? (Times of India,
13-02-01)
Is Kutch losing its industrial character? Post-quake
developments bear testimony to changes, unwanted and uncalled for. Casual labour, which
till January 25 was available in plenty, is today a sort-after lot. Labourers, who earlier
fetched Rs 60 a day against service provided, are demanding Rs 200 per day! And their
numbers have surely decreased.
Relief aplenty is playing spoil sport, says a chamber
official. "With ration enough to last them for six months, clothing, blankets et al
and tents to live in, these people are losing the zeal to work. The Latur syndrome seems
to be at work again. They need to be enthused to start working again to fend for
themselves and this will be possible once the industry gets going."
According to the official, it's the middle-class and
the lower middle-class which have lost everything. Those belonging to the so-called
deprived category actually had little to lose. "But excess relief is being percolated
to the lowest strata, and hence, the reluctance towards pursuing a livelihood. Who would
want to work if all amenities reach him before being desired?" he questions hinting
at a typical Indian mentality.
'Give them their livelihoods, not easy relief' (Times
of India, 14-02-01)
"it is time to stop giving easy hand-outs in the
name of relief", says Judy Frater, the guiding force behind the organisation, 'the
Kala Raksha trust'. These people have lost their homes and livelihoods. Instead of making
them dependent on easy relief, help should be given in a way that they value it. We
believe the artisans should be made part of the rehabilitation process.
….in the process, she has made a small but significant difference in the lives
of some 2,000 women in three villages here.
…. During the earthquake of January 26, she was in Bhuj and has remained there
amidst the rubble and confusion helping out the artisans, she loves so much. Miraculously,
there have been a few deaths in the villages we work in. Even our centre, made of
traditional bhungas, has not been affected.
'Recalling the quake from the epicentre' (times of
India, 28-02-01)
"More scary than the tremors are the rumours
about them" says 17 year old Savita. "They told us, the sun will rise tomorrow
and the beams will be so strong that everything will burn down", she says. And the
tales keep spinning. The suspense, on the quake keeps building like a poltergeist in
horror movies…and the people keep waiting when it will finally come, finish all and
they could start re-building again.
…..Much of the temple is gone. But a typical Kutchi bhunga (hut) stands tall
before it, a few cracks here and there, but still surviving.
"We would love to build bhungas, but the thatch for the roof has become dear
and we have to travel 25-30 km to fetch it, from the other side of Bhuj", says Khanji
of Loria village.
For three years, the villagers of Loria claim there has been no produce from the
fields since there is no rain and the quake worsened their state. "We do odd jobs
like ginning cotton, masonry work and still have to pay our rentals for the tractors used
in the fields", Khanji laments.
Young girls like Godavari and Manisha who used to make some Rs 1,500 a month
embroidering Banni's famous shawls, yokes and appliques have nothing to do now.
"We used to get the raw material from Bhujodi and make the samples and sell
them, but there has been no activity siince the quake, says naranbhai Vankar of Jhura.
'Danger: drought ahead'. Max Martin pieces together a
drought map of India. And things could only get worse by summer.
Quake-drought combine take its toll (Times of India,
18-04-01)
With summer in its early stages, the Gujarat
government is already spending Rs 6 crore each day on payment of wages to 15 lakh persons
employed at 2734 drought relief works throughout the state.
The figure could go up to Rs 8 crore or more in the coming days as employment
opportunities in the countryside dry up. …
The state may end up spending well above Rs. 500 crore, just to ward off
starvation.
Government estimates say almost 75 percent of the 16.4 million quake-affected
persons in the state are now facing the prospect of another drought….
- One of the major sources of Kutch's economy has
been the traditional crafts, which are closely linked to the livelihood of many women. The
impact of the earthquake on this source of local economy is grave and needs to be given
special attention.
- The local economy is deeply rooted in the local
social and cultural context as is demonstrated in the case of Barbers. As such the needs
for local economy are very different and need to be understood before economic
rehabilitation packages are doled out.
- Moreover the local economy is dependent on both
formal and informal sector and one cannot be outweighed for another. This is multi-faceted
and complex and cannot be categorised in standard terms. They carry different meanings for
each individual and for gender. Moreover various sectors mutually support each other and
as such are inter-dependent.
- The physical vulnerability is closely related to
economic vulnerability. The case of inability in constructing 'earthquake resistant'
traditional bhungas are in focus here.
- Multi-hazard perspective is also important to be
understood to understand the economically vulnerable conditions that in fact served as
setting for this disaster. The effects of droughts and cyclones are in focus here.
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