December 26^th 2004, at 8.00 a.m., nobody would have thought, that the seas would be venting their anger in what was going to happen.

Systematically dispatched batch of high dragon like waves threatening and chasing a multitude of helpless people, devouring on the way whatever lives it can, smashing the very livelihood properties like boats, catamarans, steamers and trawlers of the highly work-cultured people, grounding the concrete structures of the people and the horror continued…

The fury of nature was just for five to ten minutes only.  But its impacts are long-lasting till memories fade away either naturally or through some stocked disasters like this.

There were piles and piles of human bodies, unclaimed and abandoned for other people to either bury or burn them.  The carcasses of animals posed yet another big danger of sparking off an epidemic in the near future.  But, the government, the NGOs and general public had put their full might to come out of this misery at the quickest possible time.

Tsunami, although, was caused by a massive underground earthquake near Aceh province of Indonesia, it traveled vociferously a very long distance of about 2500 kilometers west of Aceh and hit the coasts of Tamil Nadu, India and Sri Lanka and caused heavy damages to the lives and properties which history would never shun away.

Looking deep into the problem, the worst-affected state in India was Tamil Nadu.  In Tamil Nadu, none of the coastal districts were fortunate enough to escape the castigation of Tsunami.  But, the worst affected districts in Tamil Nadu were Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kanniyakumari.   A few deaths have been reported from Tiruvallur, Kancheepuram, Tirunelveli and Chennai, but the ferocity was not that intense compared to Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kanniyakumari districts.

In the three districts mentioned above, the worst-affected community was the fishing community.  There were hundreds of boats, big and small, budgeted and expensive, mechanised and non-mechanised that had no time to escape.  Some of boats were swayed away as far as two kilometers inside the mainland.  One can imagine the might of Tsunami! 

If that were the cases for the boats, one can visualize what would have happened to the lives of human beings.  Many swallowed the sea water, drowned and died.  Some were taken away by the giant waves and lost forever.  Some were dashed against the heavy concretes and got killed instantly.   And, this is the account of the dead. 

The plight of the people who are living in these areas is so pitiable that words can not detail.  Yet, a few mentions on these suffering people would give a big picture of the underlying problems.

There are hundreds of orphaned children and scores of widows and widowers.  The situation of the young girls is mind-shocking.  There are dangers of sexual exploitation of these girls who do not have parents.  A great number of unemployed youth, whose only known source of income was through fishing and if their boats were completely destroyed, where else would they go for their food and living?

Fisherwomen who sold fish were out of job as there was no fishing activity taking place.  There were also a lot of people who got affected by Tsunami apart from the fisher folk.  The Dalits suffered a lot.  Their houses were completely destroyed and even in rescue and relief operations, they were discriminated.  In places like Velankanni and Nagore, which are predominately the pilgrimage areas, the businesses of the small traders were completely wiped out.

The government has initiated welfare measures for these people.  It has opened up temporary shelters for people who have lost their houses.  It has given subsidies to buy or repair the boats so that their occupation of fishing would start soon.  In some cases, adequate cash compensations were also announced.  But the irony is that all the welfare measures are not reaching the affected people properly.

Therefore, the role of the NGOs is tremendous.  The NGOs have a very vast space to enter into and do a worthy job for the Tsunami affected people.  Everybody understands the sufferings of the people.  Proper planning and execution of various programmes are needed in these trying times.

Heard and said many things!  But, Tsunami has put before us a test for social responsibility, human togetherness and other values which we highly boast of.  Are we ready for the challenge?