The tsunami that devastated the Indian Ocean region on December 26, 2004 left in its wake a trail of destruction and death. In Sri Lanka and Souther India maore than 100,000 people were killed and most of them happened to be poor fisher folks living on the sea shore. Soon after the Tsunami the region was overwhelmed with help. Nearly 5 billion dollars worth of aid flowed into the tsunami affected region. Yet the relief and rehabilitation remains incomplete. Less than 25% of the houes destroyed have been rebuilt. The children orphaned by the tsunami have not been rehabilitated and the local governemnts have remained lost to the urgency of the whole issue. In the absence of real assistance a whole host of criminals and charlatans have cropped up. In the state of Tamil Nadu, a criminal called Job Saravanan collected upwards of more than 20 million US $ on the pretext of building homes for the tsunami affected. Except buiding palatial palaces for himself and a bevy of women this "charismatic" baptist has not built any house. Such criminals enjoy the patronage of the ruling political party and so they enjoy immunity from state intervention by sharing their ill gotten wealth with the ruling politicians. The politicians who rule the region atre worse than vultures.
Now a new tragedy is beginning to unfold. The fishing communities which were devastated lost their maens of livlihood as a direct consequence of the tsunami. The richer elements and then politically well connected were able to acquire twralers from the government by claiming that their boats had been lost. However the small and marginal fisher folks who eke out a bare existence by venturing into the sea in country crafts have been completely oignored. The relief and compensation given by the various state governments to the affected victims seems to have favored only the rich sections.
As a desparate measure the poor tsunami vixctims have now began to sell their kidney in order to make a living. In Chennai, a slum known as Villivakkam is getting the name kidneyvakkam because of the frequency with which the pooe, especially the women are selling their kidney. Often the trauma of the tsunami made the men folk so scared of venturing into the sea that in several fishing villages from Chennai to Nagapattinam the men rarely venture into the sea. The women are forced to sell their kidneys in order to feed theior families. The NGOs involved in the relief and rehabilitation are aware of the link between sale of organs and the desparate proverty of the tsunami victims, but choose to turn a blind eye. In some cases the NGOs are themselves involved in this nefarious trade. Though non related donation of kidney is forbidden by law, this provision is seldom invoked.
The Clinton Foundation which has done a great job in providing assistance to the tsunami ffected must make a critical study of the phenomenon of organ sale as a distress measure by the victims.