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A team of ten members from the Movement for Empowerment of Indians and Anhad/Youth For Peace visited Kashmir to distribute relief material in more than 14 villages, hitherto not accessed by anyone but the army. Shabnam Hashmi reports on the situation.

The team acknowledges the contribution of the army in opening up roads and providing support. The following report provides a reality check on how far aid has reached the affected. It also appeals to citizens to help meet the pressing need of residents for proper shelters that will protect them through the winter.

Shabnam Hashmi of Anhad reports, ‘The first village we visited was Tangdhar. To reach Tangdhar one had to cross the Sadhna Peak, which was 10,400 feet above sea level. The road to Tangdhar had a large number of landslides, all of which cleared by the time we got there; the road was still narrow and in many places still muddy. As we moved further, the roads became more and more narrow – we could see that these would become absolutely unapproachable once it started to snow. The Line of Control (LOC) was visible from the villages.

Tangdhar has approximately 7000 households. 5178 houses are fully damaged, and 600 partially. About a thousand 1000 shops have been affected. Children have stopped going to school, with almost all school buildings being fully damaged except for two schools in Tangdhar.

To reach Badwan, both Navaid Hamid and I had to use our National Integration Council member status, as the J & K rifles post was very reluctant to let anyone go there. But using all our persuasive techniques we did manage to reach the villagers – we soon realised that they desperately needed the relief that we were carrying (mainly tents, blankets, jackets, caps, sweaters, inners, socks).

The villages where the relief reached from our team include Amroi, Tad, Hajitra, Dhanni, Gabra, Gundigujra, Dhringla, Gabdori, Nyaygabra, Kundla, Madanpura, Haftana Gabra, Khawaspara, Badwan and Bakhaiyan Malda.

The government had sent a team to assess the extent of damage; in many instances, although the team included the local Patwari but not an engineer. Many cases of partiality were reported. However, a representation had been submitted, in response to which, the Relief Commissioner himself was seen doing the rounds to reassess the houses from where complaints were received.

We heard from villagers that the army helicopters had reached within 2 hours of the earthquake and airlifted the injured. We also saw a large number of trucks carrying relief material. It might not still be enough but the efforts are there.

It is a major natural disaster and a challenge because of specially the difficult terrain. The major challenge right now is to provide shelters to people. People immediately need shelters. The tents would be useless very soon once it starts snowing.

The government has announced one hundred thousand Indian rupees for every destroyed house, out of which 40% is to be given in advance, but this has not reached everyone so far. The money is also insufficient to build a shelter. Unfortunately the response from the civil society is lukewarm - industrial houses, newspapers are not responding to the Kashmir earthquake crisis in the manner that they had earlier responded to the Gujarat earthquake and tsunami.

We also saw several organizations working in Tangdhar, including - Janvikas, COVA, Action Aid, United Economic Forum and some other religious organisations. There must have been some others too working there.

Anhad is sending its Youth For Peace team of 10 young volunteers tomorrow night for a week to Kashmir. Anhad and Youth for Peace have so far mobilised approximately six hundred thousand rupees. We are sending galvanized iron- zinc sheets for temporary shelters to Tangdhar, because this would provide cost-effective protection against the snow.’

To support the earthquake relief effort contact Shabnam Hashmi , Tel: 23327366 / 23327367,

Address: Anhad, 4 Windsor place, New Delhi-110001.