India Fails In Tsunami Rehabilitation Efforts

Elephant swims off the coast of the Andaman Islands, India / Photo by Kimberley Mair

The tribunal, organized by a coalition of local groups and people’s movements, examined the performance of the Indian government in relation to housing, land and livelihoods. The jury, chaired by Justice Suresh, former judge of the Mumbai High Court, asserted that the Central government, as well as the state governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and the union territories of Pondicherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have failed in their legal and moral responsibility to provide adequate rehabilitation, and have violated both their national and international legal commitments.

“In the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, four years on from the tsunami, only 250 of the planned 10,000 permanent houses have been allotted, leaving families to live in grossly inadequate ‘intermediate’ tin shelters.”

Based on 26 testimonies from tsunami survivors from the affected states, the jury stated that the absence of monitoring mechanisms as well as non-compliance with judicial orders and recommendations from the government’s own auditing body, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), have led to “a serious and debilitating delay leading to violations of the human rights of adequate housing, land, work, food, education, and security. The jury noted the slow pace of rehabilitation and the severe delays in providing permanent housing and restoring livelihoods of tsunami survivors with alarm. For example, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, four years on from the tsunami, only 250 of the planned 10,000 permanent houses have been allotted, leaving families to live in grossly inadequate ‘intermediate’ tin shelters.

Jury members further criticized the Indian government for its inadequate and discriminatory housing policy; the forced relocation of communities to distant sites; the absence of basic services, including water and healthcare in resettlement sites; the lack of consultation with affected communities in the rehabilitation process; the denial of women’s rights to housing, livelihood, security and privacy; persistent discrimination against dalits (‘untouchables’) and tribals; the diversion of tsunami funds for tourism and infrastructural developments and lack of transparency and accountability; the forced eviction of coastal communities under the guise of ensuring their “safety”; the increased commercialization and privatisation of the coast and coastal resources; and the absence of effective monitoring and grievance redressal mechanisms.

Among its recommendations, the jury called for the following:

• The need to uphold and protect the right to adequate rehabilitation and the right to disaster prevention as human rights.
• Adequate livelihood restoration for fishing and non-fishing communities, including agricultural communities and women.
• Immediate halt to all evictions of all dalits, fish workers, tribals, and other marginalised groups living along the coast.
• Immediate implementation of Supreme Court interim orders and CAG recommendations related to the tsunami.
• Urgent provision of basic facilities (water, sanitation, electricity.
• health services, education, transport) in all resettlement sites.
• Non-discrimination in all phases of rehabilitation and reconstruction, and the need to especially protect the human rights of women, children, dalits, tribals, persons with disabilities, and older persons.
• Development of a comprehensive and community-oriented post-disaster policy, including for housing, that is based on international human rights standards.
• Withdrawal of the draft Coastal Management Zone (CMZ), and implementation of existing Coastal Regulation Zone Notification (1991).
• Need to develop effective accountability, monitoring and grievance redressal mechanisms.

The Tribunal was organized in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, on 18th and 19th December 2008 by:

• The Housing and Land Rights Network
• The Human Rights Advocacy
• Research Foundation
• The Human Rights Law Network
• Citizens for Human Rights Movement
• A coalition of community groups and people’s movements.

Other jury members included:

• Miloon Kothari – former UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing
• Dr. Mira Shiva – Coordinator, Initiative for Health Social Equity
• Gopal Guru – Professor at the Centre of Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
• Henri Tiphagne – Director, People’s Watch,
• Dr. Janki Andharia, Professor, Tata Institute of Social Science,
• Dr. Amitabh Kundu, Professor of Economics, Jawaharlal Nehru University.