Seva Bharathi services for Flood Victims: Courtesy www.teluguone.com

Sewa Bharathi Karnataka new web site

Sewa Bharathi Karnataka has a new web site

http://sevabharathikarnataka.org/

Flood situation in Costal andhra pradesh Andhra pradesh

Flood relief activity in Repalle

Sewa vibhag Flood relief activities in Guntur Dist

Sewa vibhag Flood relief Report card in Statistics

Stock in Hand

1	Ration
	Rice( Kg)	70000
	Oil( litre)	500
	Dal(Kg)	2552
	Tamarind(Kg)	1400
	Jowar((kg)	450
	Mirchi(Kg)	180
2	Clothes
	Blankets	5921
	Sarees	1800
	Petticoats	118
	Dhotis	317
	Lungis	267
	Towels	100
	Blouses	100
	Vests	110
3	Vessels
	Plates	1500
	Tumblers	250
	Buckets	300
	Plastic Pots	200
	Mats	880
4	Medicines(Rs)	75000
this material will be used for the preperation of 10,000 kits
each kit will cost Rs.1250/-

Kits Distributed in collaboraton with others
Typical Kit:
	rice	10kg
	dal	1kg
	oil	1/2 lit
	tamarind	250gm
	salt	500gm
	chilli powder	250gm
	biscuit packets	2 nos
	blanket
	towels
	saree + blouse
	mat
	bucket + mugs
	2plates + 2tumblers
	soaps
	candles + matchbox
	toothpaste
Total 20,650 kits have been distributed in collaboration with other organizations

 
Food Distributed

Sr. No.	Details	No. of Items
1	Food
	Food Packets	153000
	Chapathis	1503660
	Bread	211800
	Biscuits	139556
	Bananas	15000
	Guava	20000
	Water(lit)	100000

IT Milan volunteers Sewa Vibhag flood relief

Karnataka Foods: a request from Seva Bharati

A personal experience working with flood relief teams of sewa vibhag

Written in Marathi by mangesh Joshi 

Translated to English by

PrafulKumar Nikam
Consultant - BI
iTree Consulting Pvt Ltd.
 

Last Friday 11th Oct 2009 I got a chance to visit Rajoli a flood affected village in Andhra Pradesh. Seva Bharati an organisation under sangh parivar umbrella is working in flood relief work from day one of this tragedy. This happens to be my first visit to a calamity hit area and this gave me a chance to understand the work culture in the  RSS.  

One thing that struck me with glaring intensity was the chaos that surrounded the relief distribution in the flood affected areas. Many NGO were involved in the flood relief to help people but because of lack of proper planning and insufficient experience and cadre made it impossible for them to reach every affected person. whenever a relief vehicle reaches with relief items for flood affected people; theres' a crowd attacking the vehicle. It was impossible to control the crowds, the police person or any other volunteers were unable to control the hungry, helpless and angry crowds. Situations turned to crowd looting things, the stronger you are the more food or relief material you will end up with. This type of incident not only makes impossible, for the relief material to reach everyone but also lot of items and grains are wasted. One amazing scenario was the RSS cadre distributing the relief material. Controlled, planned and everything seemed to have been worked out. And other NGO's who had the relief material would approach the RSS volunteers for help.  

we started our journey 6 am from Hyderabad; because of weekend we had at least 10 to 12 other Software professionals from various companies were also going to the affected area. They had some Flood relief material to deliver to flood affected people. We reached to seva bharati base camp in mahaboobnagar at around 9 am. All flood relief items are kept in the premises of one college from where it is supplied on daily basis to 29 villages in that District / Jilha. Apart from this college, seva bharati started 4 other small camps in remote areas for logistical convinience and immediate basic help. In the early days of this natural calamity seva bharati concentrated only on supply of food and water packets. Along with the supply of food RSS cadre simulteniously surveyed affected areas. On the basis of these surveys seva bharati started distributing a basic kit which includes rice-dal-utansils-masala-oil etc which is sufficient for a family for next 15-20 days. By the time we reached the base camp, almost RSS Volunteers already left for the days relief work. we were directed and guided to Rajooli a village near to a small dam and most affected by flood.

we started following a team of 40 Volunteers. As we were reaching near the village; the marks of the tragedy are clearly visible. All cultivated land is washedout; people were staying in small temporary huts near the road side. All people were waiting on road in the hope of some relief. Because of flood there was mud and sediments left by the river flood every where and it was smelling strange, rotten. Roads were almost washedout. After around 1 hour of travel from base camp we we reached Rajoli; we stoped near a school. A government medical camp and water tanker were near the  school. All the villagers were drinking water from that tanker.

As soon as we reached there Jilaha pracharak of RSS called all the people and organised the people in to small teams. Because of initial surveys it's a known fact  that each family in village need basic kit as every thing is lost. To distribute identification card to each family and to convey massage that please collect kit at 3 pm from school ground; small teams are sent in different direction. I also accompanied with one team. We started visiting each and every home. We are explaining families the method of kit distribution time and place. People are explaining thier losses in flood tragedy. In some homes walls are washed away but still the roof is there and some homes are completely demolished. People are staying combine with relatives and neighbors in those homes which are still in good conditions. Some homes which are constructed by cement-concrete are till in good situation but the items in home are heavily damaged. People are staying in small temporary huts near to there washout homes. The main business of this village is cloth manufacturing but because of flood almost all handlooms are affected and not working.

After visiting around 100 to 125 homes; my team returns to school ground. All other teams already reached there by completing there work. Till the vehicle taking kits reach to village no work was there and as all swayamasevak(RSS cadre) already taken breakfast so only biscuits and Bananas are distributed in teams; full meal was only going to get after reaching to base came in evening; all seva bharati cadre is daily working like this way. When we are taking rest one NGO vehicle came with some utensils. People surrounded vehicle and started picking things. 5-6 NGO cadre and one police man is helpless in front of mob. As we are free, we helped NGO member in distributing items. By seeing a systematic approach of RSS cadre; NGO thanked them for help and taken address of base camp and told us that they will supply relief item to base camp next time rather than direct distributing.

Around 3 Pm people started gathering on school ground and around 2000 people were there. we made 3-4 queue and as sufficient disciplined RSS cadre was there so no much difficulty in making lines. Meanwhile some cadre singing started patriotic songs with villagers; this provided some entertainment to villagers in such a tense situation and to us also after all the day hard work. Vehicle arrived around 4 PM with kits. Sawayamsevak made a round for security so that relief must reach only to needy and no wastage of item.  We started distributing kits by giving priority to ladies and old persons; as we assure to people that everyone having card will get kit so all people stand in long queue quietly waited for there turn. People cooperated very well and before leaving many thanked us, seva bharati and RSS. People appreciated a discipline and systematic distribution of relief items to every needy person. Police also appreciated and told that for society RSS work is much important.

Experience of an IT professional working with Seva bharathi / RSS in Flood relief

Reconstructed experience of Mr Deepanshu as written in bits and pieces as comments in his Picasa album:

On Sunday 11 Oct we visited this place Rajouli (Mahaboobnagar dist) to get more details of how RSS is operating for relief work. Believe me, no media coverage or photos would have given even a closer understanding of the devastation than this first hand visit..

We started at 5 am from hyderabad.
 
On the way to the relief camps run by seva bharathi /RSS

We found truck loads of relief materials by various agencies one of them was a corporate Astra Microwave products Ltd going for flood relief assistance. For the first time I was going to such kind of assistance and also for first time worked with Seva Bharathi / RSS. Their work system is very organized. 

They first surveyed and counted the affected number of houses in advance and mean time arranged the items and simulteniously got the tokens and cards printed. Today till 2.30 pm first 10 groups went to each area in Rajoli village and distributed cards. Relief vehicles came with the items, while volunteers making sure discipline is followed the beneficiries were properly made to sit in queues. 

The 2nd phase of relief work in Mahboobnagar will  be completed on Thursday with cleaning of Allampur Temple by 1000 volunteers. 

In third phase hand weaving machines to people of Rajoli will be given as this is the main source of earning and everyone has lost them in flood. We found the used clothes thrown away by people even good quality clothes also were thrown / burnt them to clean the village.

Our first stop was the base camp of RSS in a engg. college near to Krishna river on NH7, Sri kottam tulasi reddy memorial enginnering college. This is the base center. Sewa bharathi are arranging kits in the night and started distributing in the morning. Almost more than 400 Sewabharathi volunteers are working here and distributing relief material in 29 villages through this base camp.  The flood relief Kit includes basic needy material which will help them to servive for next 15 days.

Sewa bharathi volunteers were ready to go for distribution. Each group of distribution team was briefed on situations and how to handle them as well as Kit distribution plan. The Collage Gym was converted in Store room. We could meet amazing people in the trip there was this volunteer, he was here from first day and providing help along with his own vehicle, Loading the Kits for Distribution.

Once the trucks and vehicles were loaded we were ready to go. Getting ready to go rajauli for distrribution. At Rajoli we distributed packets to about 2000 people which had 10 kg rice, one kg of pulses, tamarind and spices, utensils and a bucket, mug, blanket, mat, candle and matchbox.

The RSS base camp had boxes of medicines sent from different Churches. During my one day experience in relief work with RSS I realized it was equally done for people from different communities. But while traveling on the highway I did came across "relief for minorities".

The cloth merchants of Nizamabad donated new clothes. A Clothe merchant from kamareddy has actually donated Rs. 16 lakh worth clothes. People are not accepting used clothes. A lot of the clothes were thrown or burnt as they were used clothes, even clothes in good condition but used were thrown away by beneficiaries.

If you see the Google maps link one would realize that Rajavolu was the starting point as the barrage gates are located here and all the damage happened along the flow of Tungabhadra river.

Volunteers in vans and jeeps at the base camp were organised in to 10 teams and distributed the cards to the needy people surveying the house and seeing their voter cards. Employees of Infosys, MS and Oracle are also participated in the relief operation working with Sewa bharathi.

Larges stretches of farms were wiped off because of floods. It was sad and amazing how the water from Tungabhadra reached to such levels and damaged everything in its way. The internal road to Rajoli after taking right on NH7 was an example and it was worse.

Seva Bharati / RSS volunteers distributed cards to each family based on the condition of the house and looking at their voter card. It was pleasing to discover the propaganda of discrimination and religious intolerence was fake and atleast I did not find any discrimination based on caste or religion. Volunteers  explained and convinced the villagers to come to the village school premises with the card given, where distribution will take place at 2:30 pm.

We were standing on the bank of the Tungabhadra 40 feet above current water level and the villagers say water went about 20 feet above where we were standing. The amazing and live thing was the markings on the walls due to water stagnation and it was unbelievable that a now dry river had a week ago submerged the village.

At the end of the day it was satisfaction of helping others in need and finding out truth for ones own self that gives peace. So I was a relieved man after working with the RSS / Sewa bharati volunteers now I know what it is.