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Caught in the middle of a struggle between Naxalites and state security agencies, women, children and aged have been living in hunger and fear, struggling for survival.
The stories one hears in the temporary camps that have come up in the forests of Andhra Pradesh are very similar to each other. The civil armed group called Salwa Judum, which was created to counter the leftwing armed carder claiming to be at war with the Indian state, has been a source of fear for these tribal families living in Chhattisgarh. The situation of conflict in the forest has to human rights abuses with reports of excess from both the sides.
But the choice of these families to walk for days and find safety doesn’t exactly end the way they hope for, with the Andhra Pradesh forest department and security forces seeing them as violators of law and encroachers.
Uprooted and uncared
Madivi Nanda, 25, saw his world burnt to ashes on a spring evening in the year 2008. With his village in Dantewada being set on fire and huts being destroyed, he was on the run. With a two-year-old boy and a two-week-old infant, he along with his wife, 20, walked for two days to reach Kuknoor forests.
Like thousands – some sources place the numbers at 49,000 – who went through similar ordeal, the escape plan ended in the unwelcoming forests of Khammam District. With no livelihood, food or even a shelter, life became a nightmare.
Inflated tummy, wrinkled skin with mere bones for limbs and wounds infected with parasites, shocked the very first civil society groups reached these families.
In 2009, ActionAid could rope in the National Council for Protection of the Child Rights for issuing directions to the district administration to respond to this humanitarian crisis. This resulted in the constitution of a joint survey through which 203 IDP settlements were identified.
Attempts to rebuild lives
Nanda’s family was spotted by one of the mobile medical units, which cover about 15 spots in the forest where these displaced families have settled.
With the most pressing needs of the internally displaced families staring in the face, ActionAid initiated a series of support activities for immediate relief through the European Commission for Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).
Nanda’s two children were placed in one of the 22 feeding centers created to reverse malnutrition among children, pregnant women, lactating mothers. These centers also double in as education centers to prepare these children for schooling apart from providing two cooked meals.
During the course of the project, over hundred pregnant women and lactating mothers have also been receiving cooked food through the feeding centers. Lives of 200 severely malnourished children were saved through Nutrition Rehabilitation Center (NRC).
Advocating for citizenship rights
Over 500 tribal families have been provided with food packets which last for three months to help them fight food insecurity. These families were then linked to National Employment Guarantee Schemes or Public Distribution System and Integrated Child Development Schemes.
Similarly, 3,350 families have accessed primary health care facilities through mobile clinics and 2,688 families have accessed primary health care facility through health workers across 203 settlements.
The long-term plan for these families to get back to their villages and rebuild their homes and lives is also underway and needs measures for building an atmosphere bereft of fear.
