Hunger drives many survivors to begging

Ramaji, his three-year-old daughter and four-year-old son queued for a meal provided for them for the first time on Wednesday by the first and only community kitchen to open in their taluka.

Rupar, which is rated among the worst hit places, has only just got a community kitchen organised by relief teams. Those villagers who had the strength, had been walking at least three kilometres, sometimes more, to nearby Raes where a few voluntary organisations have a food distribution hour on the roadside.

Ramaji, who had lost everything in the quake had survived by begging on the outskirts of his village for the past 10 days.

"A few trucks loaded with food sometimes stopped to offer me food packages. At times, those big people who come in cars to visit our village, offered me money. The amount varied from one rupee to two. I have also asked both my children to fend for themselves if they are hungry," he said.

The only community kitchen in Rupar was established by the Viswa Gurumath Rohan Charitable Trust, from Chandigarh.

Lakhmit Singh, who is overseeing the kitchen said that they had resources to feed about 50,000 people per day.

"We had lot of cooperation from the Punjab government who did their best. It is because of their initiative that we got this site. We especially wanted to carry out our activities in a remote village. Bhuj being a major taluka got all the attention while the state of affairs in the interior is worse," he said.

The moment the villagers learnt of a community kitchen, he said, there was a lot of commotion among them. They had gone hungry for days.

"All of those who come here to eat also bring a plastic bag, or whatever they can, to store some food. We have dal, chappatis, a vegetable curry and pappads," he said.

On the outskirts of Bhachau, a group of volunteers from the Gujarat industrial sector who have come together under the Rashtriya Sewa Sangh, have been feeding the hungry of Veand village for the past week.

Vinod Rathore, a volunteer, said: "Though more than a week has passed since the quake happened the hungry are still pouring in. At first people came one by one, but now the whole village is right there in front of us. They do not even have the patience to stand in a queue.

"At times they quarrel with each other for a place. To avoid this commotion, we made use of the street divider area and made them sit in rows of two. The same is done on the road-side. Now things are a little bit under control. We provide them with one vegetable curry, rice, puris and chappatis and packets of drinking water.

"Unfortunately all the community kitchens opened by various groups are more or less concentrated in Bhuj. So the villages are completely unattended. Of course plenty of medicines and clothes are offered to the people. This is all fine, but the villagers are looking for food for themselves, as well as their children, who, if not fed, will take to begging on the streets," he said.