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By Amy White, vice president of internal communications at Cardinal Health
Today, I met a snake catcher.
The ancient tribe of the Irula people has thrived for generations by catching snakes in the thick grasses, removing their venom and selling them to the snake charmers who provide marketplace entertainment. It was a fairly reliable source of income, but the government recently outlawed snake catching, and Irulas have begun working as employees on fishing boats owned by nearby communities.
The Poorest of the Poor
| The Irula people of Shanmugha Nagar suffered immense trauma in the aftermath of the tsunami. This woman holding her child told us that she is too frightened to return to the sea. (Photo courtesy Amy White) |
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Irulas are categorized as "backward caste," or "B.C." for short. They are the lowest of the low — and the poorest of the poor — in Indian society. Already at an economic disadvantage, the Irulas had even more complex issues after the tsunami. Like many others, the Irulas lost possessions and loved ones in the tsunami. With the fishing communities out of commission, they also lost their primary source of income.
Most relief agencies focused their immediate disaster response on the coastal communities and showed little regard for the Irulas and other B.C. tribes, who could not prove they owned the land they lived on and had little means of income. Nearly 40 percent of the Irulas are children. Their situation grew from bad to dire within weeks of the tsunami.
Enter CARE
There was a different feel to this village than the Pillemedu village we visited the previous day. The Irula shelters were a little more primitive. The women's saris were not quite as colorful or ornate. And while the tribal community was curious about our arrival, they were not in the celebratory mood we had seen in some of the other villages.
CARE has been busy in this village, called Shanmugha Nagar after the ancestral founder of the tribe. In addition to addressing their most immediate needs for food and shelter, CARE has focused on helping the Irulas gain rights to land, which requires careful but amicable negotiation with the local governments. With the land secure, they can now work on permanent shelters, roads, clean water and sanitation — all requirements for good health and hygiene.
But just like Pillemedu, Shanmugha Nagar suffered immense trauma in the aftermath of the tsunami. One woman holding her child told us that she is too frightened to return to the sea. She cannot look at the water without feeling a paralyzing fear.
Unemployed since the tsunami decimated fishing villages, too many Irula husbands have taken to drinking and are sometimes violent. Children misbehave and won't obey their mothers. These new realities of post-tsunami life feel unnatural and are particularly difficult for the Irula women. Psycho-social counseling remains a top priority here in Shanmugha Nagar.
CARE is implementing its psycho-social work in partnership with the Indian government's National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore. We met some of the NIMHANS mental health workers who are helping the Irulas overcome post-traumatic stress disorder. They train elder members of the tribe and women in positions of authority (e.g. teachers) to recognize signs of stress from the tsunami. Trainees learn that these are normal reactions to a traumatic event, and that together they can work through these emotions to adjust and move on with their lives.
One mental health worker told us that, though painful at times, it has been enormously rewarding to work with the Irulas. "No one looks out for them," he said. "So we help them look out for themselves." This same gentleman told us he would like to go to New Orleans to help Katrina victims, since he imagines they are suffering the same feelings of shock, betrayal, fear and depression that the Irulas have been dealing with for a year.
In the village schoolhouse, trained teachers work with Irula children, helping them to draw their recollections of the tsunami, to talk about the things or people they miss, and to focus on a future world that is better than the one they live in today. Their schoolhouse floor is covered with big poster boards and the walls are decorated with all their drawings. Their smiles were some of the brightest we saw in India, proof to us that their therapy is working.
It was hard to leave Shanmugha Nagar, but we asked our CARE hosts to keep us posted on how our new friends in the village are doing in the months to come. With a little more time and patience, we think the smiles we saw in the schoolhouse will spread to the rest of the community.
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