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KOKRAJHAR, India, Feb 3 2015 (IPS) - The tarpaulin sheet, when stretched and tied to bamboo poles, is about the length and breadth of a large SUV. Yet, about 25 women and children have been sleeping beneath these makeshift shelters at several relief camps across Kokrajhar, a district in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam.
The Asian Centre for Human Rights says the situation is reaching a full-blown humanitarian crisis , representing one of the largest conflict-related waves of displacement in India.
It has turned a mirror on India’s inability to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and suggests that continued violence across the country will pose a major challenge to meeting the basic development needs of a massive population.
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Powered by Cincopa Video Hosting for Business solution.New Gallery 2015/2/3 In Serfanguri relief camp in Kokrajhar, several tents were erected, but they were inadequate to properly house the roughly 2,000 people who had reached there. This single tent houses 25 women and children. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.584667 long : 90.168833 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 4:35:16 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V In Gongia village, IDPs who did not have access to the government’s relief supplies brought woven bamboo sheets from their homes and erected tents using sarees as walls. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.585333 long : 90.128500 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/9/2015 10:41:05 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V Hunger is constant in the refugee camps, with meagre rations of rice, lentils, cooking oil and salt falling short of most families’ basic needs. Women are forced to walk long distances to fetch firewood for woodstoves. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 dir : 74 alt : 65 lat : 26.598833 long : 89.927333 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 10:47:44 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V With just a few tube wells erected at camps housing hundreds, access to potable water means endless queues and getting everyone in the family involved. Even children carry heavy pails of water back to their tents. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.584333 long : 90.169000 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 5:50:24 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V At the Serfanguri camp, this child suffers from a skin infection. His family is yet to receive medicines from the National Rural Health Mission. On-site medical vans aren’t visiting every family in need of assistance. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 dir : 304 alt : 62 lat : 26.584500 long : 90.168833 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 4:37:33 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V Violence has interrupted the education of hundreds of children. The local administration is attempting to evict refugees from the camps, but little is being done to ensure the educational rights of displaced children. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.567667 long : 90.062667 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 7:48:25 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V An Adivasi woman dries her saree in the sun. For most women, bathing and washing clothes is a major undertaking, involving trekking long distances to reach streams or other sources of fresh, clean water. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.584500 long : 90.169000 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 5:49:38 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V Women face a double burden, with their monthly cycle posing yet another challenge to life in a makeshift shelter. One woman at a camp in Lalachor village has had to tear her own clothes and use them as sanitary napkins. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.538333 long : 89.909833 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/9/2015 6:08:08 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V There has been a high rate of increase in diseases like diarrhoea and skin infections at camps. Here, women and children wade through unclean water to reach the relief camp where they have been living since Dec. 23. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.570000 long : 90.062500 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 6:44:26 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V With food in limited supply and fish being a staple part of the Assamese diet, it is common to see women and even children fishing in the swamps that line the edge of the camps, no matter how dirty the water might be. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.570167 long : 90.062667 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/8/2015 6:44:56 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V Sonatoni Karmakar’s husband and brother were shot during clashes in 1996. The recent attacks rekindled her old nightmares. She fled in terror and now lives among nearly 240,000 refugees. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.586167 long : 89.974667 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/9/2015 8:05:04 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V Scenes like this were not uncommon at relief camps inhabited by the Bodo community. Many families have accepted that they will have a long wait before returning to their homes, or before their children resume schooling. Credit: Priyanka Borpujari/IPS flash 16 cameramake SONY height 3672 lat : 26.576833 long : 90.022667 orientation 1 camerasoftware GIMP 2.8.10 originaldate 1/9/2015 9:10:03 PM width 4896 cameramodel DSC-HX20V
Edited by Kanya D’Almeida
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