Resilience is the word. This makes the people of Bihar a class apart. An unmeasurable human crisis is looking straight into the eyes of more than 2.5 million people in the state. But when the government fails to keep the promises, the people keep the hope afloat. This is the state of the affairs of the state facing the wrath of the turbulent river Kosi.
Nepal has reportedly acknowledged its laxity in keeping the Indian side posted with the state of the embankment on Kosi. This nation was too busy with the guerrilla Maoists just recently fighting the nation taking command of its government. It did not bother the implications of its criminal laxity.
People in Bihar are turning out quite large-hearted. Even the poor are contributing in their own manners for the relief of the affected. The gates of Dharamshalas have been thrown open at most of the places. The divide of the religion and caste has been breached, at least for the moment.
The Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), always the whipping boy of the "secularists", has come out to provide succor to the people in distress ably. Its front, Seva Bharti, which is manned by the foot-soldiers of the RSS is keeping the hope of the battered people afloat with its relief camps across the state. It's heartening to know that other voluntary organisations are flocking to it in their bits to share the sorrow of the millions of the distressed.
However, the current of the river Kosi is too strong to lift the gloomy picture. It's flowing at a much alarming speed, with the heavy rains set to cast a pall of gloom not only on the state machinery but also to the people who are looking into bleak future.
The government's response has been too inadequate and too late. The official figure of the death toll though is in double digit, the talk in the state is of thousands of deaths. If that was not enough, the epidemic, with the carcass of human and animal bodies floating in the river, is threatening to inflict its own toll.
Nepal has reportedly acknowledged its laxity in keeping the Indian side posted with the state of the embankment on Kosi. This nation was too busy with the guerrilla Maoists just recently fighting the nation taking command of its government. It did not bother the implications of its criminal laxity.
People in Bihar are turning out quite large-hearted. Even the poor are contributing in their own manners for the relief of the affected. The gates of Dharamshalas have been thrown open at most of the places. The divide of the religion and caste has been breached, at least for the moment.
The Rashtriya Sevak Sangh (RSS), always the whipping boy of the "secularists", has come out to provide succor to the people in distress ably. Its front, Seva Bharti, which is manned by the foot-soldiers of the RSS is keeping the hope of the battered people afloat with its relief camps across the state. It's heartening to know that other voluntary organisations are flocking to it in their bits to share the sorrow of the millions of the distressed.
However, the current of the river Kosi is too strong to lift the gloomy picture. It's flowing at a much alarming speed, with the heavy rains set to cast a pall of gloom not only on the state machinery but also to the people who are looking into bleak future.
The government's response has been too inadequate and too late. The official figure of the death toll though is in double digit, the talk in the state is of thousands of deaths. If that was not enough, the epidemic, with the carcass of human and animal bodies floating in the river, is threatening to inflict its own toll.
The government both at the Centre and state must match the resilience of the people, lest their credibilty shoud take the sever beating.
(The picture is of The Action Aid, an NGO.)
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