April 17, 2005
"Invest in Women, Make a World of Difference"
from Women's Edge Coalition
Week 3: Tsunami reconstruction in India - Women rebuilding the environment
In brief: The tsunami's lingering effects on the environment continue to harm disaster survivors. Now, in India, the Society for Rural Education and Development plans to offer women employment rebuilding mangrove forests and strengthening the ecosystem.
When the tsunami flooded coastal communities across south Asia and east Africa, it smashed coral reefs and polluted agricultural lands with salt. This left many local communities - dependent on fishing or farming for their living - without food or income.
The Society for Rural Education and Development (SRED), a south India NGO, is providing relief and reconstruction assistance to 35 tsunami-affected coastal villages. It found that coral reefs, forests, inland vegetation and, above all, the protective fringe of mangrove trees which grew along the shore had served as a buffer to the fury of the water.
The deep-rooted mangroves, SRED reports, even withstood the tsunami in some areas, in one case saving the lives of fishermen who took shelter near the grove. In contrast, the greatest damage was found where mangroves had been removed to promote commercial shrimp cultivation.
SRED's conclusion: "The existing mangroves on the coastal area have to be protected."
So SRED is designing a program to raise the awareness of women - fisherwomen, Dalit ("untouchable" caste) and indigenous tribal women - on the effectiveness of preserving mangroves in coastal areas. Fisherwomen in selected villages will be trained to raise mangrove trees in tree nurseries. After the training, the women will be employed to raise mangrove trees for sale.
While the project is underway, SRED will help women meet survival needs by giving them small sums (500 Indian rupees, about eleven dollars) to buy fish to sell in the market.
"Fisher women, women from minority communities, Dalit women, women from Irular [tribal] communities, need immediately work to earn their livings," SRED wrote in a recent report. "Hundreds of them are without anything to do after Tsunami."
This is just the kind of appropriate employment that the small-grants fund for women that we proposed to Congress is designed to support. Even small sums will help women reestablish their economic self-sufficiency. And projects like this one will also help restore the ecosystem.
Besides protecting the land, mangroves provide protection, fuel, traditional medicines, and timber to local communities and offer a sheltered environment where fish can reproduce and grow. Planting them will replenish natural resources, allowing people to return to their established way of living.
Barb Gottlieb
Director of Outreach & Membership
Women's Edge Coalition
bgottlieb@womensedge.org