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Banishing the Monsters

CARE will focus on the long-term imperative of rebuilding Indian villages so they can withstand earthquakes, hopefully banishing the specter of future disaster

by Wendy Driscoll, CARE press officer

SINUGRA, GUJARAT (February 5, 2001) -- The streets of this small village which was utterly destroyed by the January 26 earthquake that rocked Gjurarat, India, are filled with monsters.

Giant construction equipment begins clearing the tons of rubble left from the quake. All photos © CARE 2001.

"The children are very scared and confused," says an elderly woman named Savitsiven, as she holds her granddaughter close against her pale orange sari. "They constantly feel the tremors (aftershocks) and they feel it will happen all over again. They have dreams where they see it happening again."

It is perhaps easy to pick out the most traumatized members of post-quake society here in Gujarat. An ancient tradition called saramanu requires that the head of small children be shaved with only a small tuft left on the crown as a sign of mourning for the dead. And Sinugra's streets are dotted with children sporting this perfectly round, conical hairstyle.

The shaven head of Jitesh, 11, also is adorned by a foot or more of gauze bandage, which covers the gash on his forehead where a rock fell and knocked him to the ground in the doorway of his home. His mother was crushed to death in their house.

Now Jitesh sleeps with what remains of his family in a tent supplied by CARE. His makeshift home sits beside dozens of others in an empty field next to a mile-long stretch of rubble that once was his village. He and his friend walk wide-eyed through the rubble, which emits the smell of death from still-buried corpses. They watch the huge yellow construction machines claw at the debris, remnants of the homes, schools and roads where they once played and lived. At night, they huddle together in near-freezing temperatures warmed only by the blankets distributed by CARE. Adults offer him what comfort they can.

"I tell him his parents are not dead, they have gone to God's home," says Savitsiven, stroking Jitesh's bowed head, "God needs them more."

Besides its short-term work providing medical aid and thousands of tents, blankets, lamps, and other equipment to survivors, CARE will focus on the long-term imperative of rebuilding villages like Sinugra. Houses will be built using ultra-sturdy concrete instead of the traditional heavy stones that, on the day of the quake, shook loose from their plaster moorings and crushed so many of Gujarat's victims. Some villagers talk of returning to traditional mud and straw structures instead of the "modern" limestone buildings that proved fatally vulnerable on January 26.

"We tell them it will not happen again, " says Savitsiven. Perhaps. Gujurats's last great earthquake was on August 15, 1950, when thousands of people died. Another quake killed thousands in the early 20th century. Building earthquake-proof structures now, while the memory of the disaster provides strong motivation, is imperative if future calamity is to be averted and the monsters are to be banished.

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