Ritinjali's Disaster Relief Efforts in Bihar

The Journey

I travelled to Bihar earlier this week with Shafi Alam, the Additional Director General Police from Patna , to see how Ritinjali could help in the disaster relief efforts, and it's vital to share what I saw…

Aside from the devastation wrought by the flooding of the Kosi River , what became clear was the very important work being done by a motley crew of empowered individuals, non governmental organizations (NGOs), and government officials. Worth mentioning are the efforts of Shafi Alam , Prateya Amrit, the IAS officer who is the Special Secretary in-charge of Disaster Management, Dr. Kamal Kishore, the SP of Khagaria and the local MLA Panna Lal Singh Patel Chauhan who all showed remarkable courage in the face of insurmountable odds to try and bring relief, safety and support to the evacuees. These individuals were in turn supported by the local community members like Shravan Kumar & Kaushal Kishore from a local NGO called Survpriya Khadi Gramodyog Samiti Katghara and Manoj Kumar Gupta who works with an NGO called Jeevan Jyoti.

who came out in full force to feed, clothe and shelter those who have lost their homes.

*Thank you so much to all those who donated funds, clothes, food and other useful items.

Much of my time in Bihar was spent in Mansi and Khagaria, primarily corn growing areas exporting huge quantities to our neighbours in Pakistan and Bangladesh . The floods have almost entirely submerged these areas, destroying all the crops.

Ritinjali's Work

Ritinjali, as you all know, is a small non governmental organization working primarily in and around Delhi on education and community development projects. We are, however, very committed to providing education, aid and assistance through volunteer and professional programmes wherever they may be needed . Thus far, we have reached out in Gujarat, Pondicherry , Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, Tripura and Meghalaya in addition to our work in Delhi .

In Bihar , we are working with families that were evacuated from Alamnagar and Gualpada villages around Madhepura. Madhepura, a town of 50,000-70,000 people, also known as the ‘Cow Belt of Bihar,' is a big producer of milk and other dairy products and was one of the worst hit areas. Though the waters are receding, as can be seen from the satellite map above, and Madhepura is beginning to dry up, it will still take a month or two before people can start going back to their homes – well, to the spot where their homes were, because their “kutcha” homes have mostly been washed away.

These people were evacuated by boat and set up camp right next to where they disembarked. Pansalwa camp, also known as “Zero Mile,” is on the banks of the Kali Kosi River near the Chautham Police Station in Khagaria District, right on M aheshkhut- Saharsa Road.

The team at Zero Mile: from L to R, Sita Kumari, Poonam Kumari, Shravan Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Binay Kumar, Arun Kapur, Nand Kumar, Vipin Kumar and Kaushal Kishore

The goal at Ritinjali is to facilitate and empower local communities so that they are able to support themselves. With this in mind, our efforts will continue even once the evacuees return to their villages. We are in the process of recruiting volunteers to teach the children at Zero Mile camp and these volunteers will continue their work even once the camp has been disassembled and families have returned home.