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India's Vibrant Private Sector Partners with CARE to Help Survivors of Gujarat's Killer Quake

by Wendy Driscoll, CARE press officer

SINUGRA VILLAGE, GUJARAT, INDIA (February 8, 2001) -- A young man stands in the ruins of what once was his garden, pointing to the avalanche of rubble that marks the spot where his house formerly stood. His arm hovers in the air, hand outstretched, as if his fingers could beam an arrow of light deep under the weight of rock to where his heart is buried. The body of this young man's wife lies somewhere beneath the cold stone.

"It was a love match," he explains. "The families did not approve, but I married her anyway. Everything I did, I did for her."

A "love match" -- a marriage between two people based on sentiment rather than practicality -- is still relatively rare in remote and conservative areas like this. For Manoj Vadher, 26, it was worth it. He "wanted to give everything to her," he says. This included commuting up to three hours each day to his promising job at an international timber import firm, Gupta Global, in the town of Gandidam.

When the village of Sinugra fell to the ground on January 26, the day of the largest earthquake in recent memory, it was to this company that the young widower appealed. It was too late to save his wife -- but not his friends and neighbors. "I want to pay homage to my wife," the intense young man says. "So I will do something good for my village."

Because of Vadher's appeal, Gupta Global has "adopted" this small, devastated village. The company's fleet of construction loaders and dumpers roar through the streets of Sinugra clearing debris, and Gupta Global trucks provide logistical aide to CARE for its distributions of blankets, lamps, floor mats, and other relief supplies.

The informal partnership of a for-profit private firm and a not-for-profit humanitarian organization has become a hallmark of this relief effort, as hundreds of Indian private sector firms and voluntary organizations pour into quake-blasted villages to supplement the larger efforts of the government of India and big humanitarian organizations like CARE. In its own way, this partnership is a "love match" in and of itself.

"India is a country of poverty, but also great resources," says Chirayu Amin, president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), and consequently one of India's most influential business people. His organization has just announced a joint partnership with CARE to provide long-term rehabilitation aid to Gujarat's earthquake survivors. The partnership will use FICCI's unprecedented influence within the Indian and international business communities to marshal private sector resources, materials and staff for reconstruction of thousands of houses.

It is the first formal effort of the private sector to organize its considerable resources in a single, concerted program to help quake survivors. Equally important, the FICCI - CARE Gujarat Rehabilitation Project reinforces this vibrant nation's long-standing tradition of self-help, grounded as much in religious and cultural imperatives as in national pride.

"[Our] partnership with CARE shows that Indians are not just victims of disaster but also powerful tools of reconstruction," says Chirayu.

The village of Thappar, in Anjar District, is one example of this. Utterly destroyed, its houses mere piles of crumbled gray rock, and 146 residents dead, Thappar is a picture of devastation. But help is coming.

Already several local voluntary organizations have distributed food, and the Reliance Group, a large Indian corporation, has brought kerosene stoves. CARE itself provided floor mats and other humanitarian supplies. Together, not even the imposing mountains of stone that block streets can keep relief from reaching the people.

"This is, to some extent, the legacy of Gandhi," says CARE's Dr. Renu Suri, referring to Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. Suri, an anthropologist and CARE's emergency manager in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat, has been an eyewitness to the enormous and spontaneous outpouring of generosity from civil society in Gujarat. "Gandhi was born here, and the cooperative movement is still alive here. People help each other."

FICCI officials acknowledge the legacy of Gandhi in their reasons for joining with CARE.

"Gandhi once said, 'the capitalists of India should be trustees of the people.,' " says Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General to FICCI. "This is the spirit in people's minds when people joined CARE."

It is not unusual, for example, for large Indian businesses to have a "social service wing" to provide aid to the poor. Often -- as in the case of Gupta Global and Sinugra Village -- businesses "adopt" an entire village and provide for its poorest members. It does not hurt that Gujarat is famous for its savvy business people, known throughout India for their entrepreneurial spirit and, in some cases, vast wealth.

"If a disaster is going to happen, you want it to happen here," comments a jaded BBC journalist alighting at the airport in the hard-hit city of Bhuj.

Gujarat is equally known for its strong religious sentiment, especially its population of Jains -- an offshoot of Hinduism that instructs its adherents to avoid the deliberate harm of any living creature. The combination of business and religion is a potent -and in the case of this disaster -- fortuitous mix.

"[Business people's charity] is somehow tied to their religious belief," notes Suri. "The more the bounty of God they have, the more they feel they should give back."

Rajesh Adani, one of Gujarat's most prosperous citizens, agrees. The owner of Adani Exports Limited, a $600 million export and infrastructure business, he called CARE officials to his spacious office in Ahmedabad to discuss a joint partnership he would like to enter into so as to provide shelter to quake survirors.

"There is strong community affection and extended family here but we also draw religious strengths [from helping others]," Adani says.

He points to his house, which is intact despite the collapse of other neighboring buildings.

"The God almighty saved us [so that] we can help others."

Adani already has sent teams of staff to the field to provide food, clothing and other supplies. He notes what CARE relief workers and others confirm: shelter, not food, is the pressing priority.

"There is so much food that people have folded their hands and said: 'We have enough. Kindly take it somewhere else and bring us shelter'," he says.

Sturdy, permanent shelter is important, not just because of the near freezing nights in this arid desert zone, but because of the fierce monsoon season, looming four short months in the future.

"Tents are the first step, but we also have to start immediately with interim wooden housing that can see people through the months ahead," says CARE country director in India, Tom Alcedo. "We also will work on building permanent shelter for at least 10,000 families over the next two years."

This will prove particularly challenging for villages like Thappar, whose leaders say their community is so heartsick over the loss of its people -- including at least 30 children -- that they want to relocate altogether. Manoj Vadher in Sinugra Village swears he will never return to his destroyed house and village, ghastly reminders of the young wife he lost after less than three years of marriage.

Indian government disaster experts in Ahmedabad note that land ownership eventually will draw migrants back to their home area. "People cannot carry their farms and fields with them," says a government official. But local leaders note that psychological scars will not heal until the rubble mounds are cleared, and new, earthquake-proof structures replace them.

"He is broken from the heart that is why he is saying he will not go back to that place," says Darshan Parikh, a Gupta Global business manager and close colleague to Manoj. "But once we start to build again they will come back."

For more information, please read:
India's Business Community Unites with CARE
to Bring Help to Earthquake Survivors

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