Over the last few months, terrible tragedies have been going on in the country. From flooding to landslides, the country has witnessed many situations resulting in huge loss of life, livestock, property, crops, etc.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has sounded a high alert for the next few days in the country, for torrential rainfall to devastating floods.
Bihar Floods
A resident of Ratwara village, which comes under Muzaffarpur, explains her grief.
She says, her family’s main source of income is agriculture, the sowing of seed is done, but we couldn’t process it further, as the crops got damaged due to the devastating floods. To run the family of four in this kind of situation, we are only dependent on livestock (a cow); unemployment is a big challenge here.
When asked when the farming can be resumed, she said, “We lost our hopes on Kharif crops, we are happy that at least the government has announced a sum of ₹6000 as compensation to all flood-affected families. At least we will be able to cultivate the second crop.”
She further remarked, “the flood situation here is more likely to affect the poorest, whose houses get logged with water. They don’t even have proper shelter to live, and food to eat. In simple words ‘their life becomes pathetic’.”
Pankaj Kumar Sharma, 21
A Delhi university student, Pankaj is from Dumarshan village, of Saran district.
Pankaj’s family survives on the money earned from a furniture factory which they own and some agricultural land.
“Firstly, due to the pandemic, there was a break in raw material supply, which really bothered us. We couldn’t produce furniture products and supply them. Secondly, the recent flooding has been a major issue for Bihar. Everything got affected, agriculture lands, electricity supply, vegetable supply in the market, and many types of medicinal products were out of stock,” said Pankaj.
He further added that “first the pandemic, then the floods resulted in a huge loss for our family. There is a lot of investment put in furniture products; only a few products are ready. But the people who paid advances for the furniture took away the money and said, ‘khane ke liye paise nahi hai, furniture baad me kharidenge’.” (We don’t have money for food, we can buy furniture later.)
The debts we took to buy furniture are also increasing. It’s really becoming hard to run the family.”