The story of 14-year-old Ravi and his family exemplifies the plight faced by millions in a country that has also recently been ravaged by severe drought.

October 2009

By Theodore Sam, India Communications

Ravi Kumar, 14, and his mother, Subadramma, couldn’t control their tears when they found their hens dead — 12 of them, all washed away by the raging floodwaters. Being a single mother, the loss of a substantial source of livelihood is devastating. Now, this family doesn’t even want to go back to their village.

Ravi’s father was an alcoholic who fought with Subadramma and eventually abandoned them both. Since then, the boy has been living just with her and his grandmother.

“I used to see [the hens] in front of my house every day as soon as I got up. But now, they are all dead. I feel very sad,” says Ravi, whose family lost everything when floods overwhelmed their village in south-central India along the banks of the Krishna River. At one point, the water was more than 14 feet deep.

Devastation, uncertainty

Every house in this community has a similar story. Most are completely destroyed by the floodwaters. Around 400 people, including 150 children, lived here.

“When the floods came, we all were very scared,” recalls Ravi. “Everyone was crying very badly; we thought we [would] die.”

As the floodwaters rose, some young men from the village ran and brought some tractors to evacuate residents. Ravi and his mother managed to escape — but they were able to take almost nothing with them.

“We don’t know what will happen to our future. If we go back to the village, we are scared that the floods will come again,” says Ravi.

It’s this kind of fear that has created a sense of resignation about the future of the village, where schools are closed and won’t reopen for months. “We don’t want to go back to the village,” says Subadramma. “We want to live somewhere else; please find us a place where we can live without fear.”

Dire conditions

World Vision is prioritizing the urgent needs of Ravi and families like his who have been devastated by the recent flooding. After their village was inundated, Ravi, his mother and grandmother received a Family Survival Kit consisting of clothing, towels, sheets, mosquito nets, cooking supplies, and a tarpaulin.

India, which has also faced severe drought in other regions recently, has seen its civilians affected by severe food shortages and major setbacks in humanitarian development work at the hands of these disasters. Chronic hunger is now a major concern.

“Rates of malnourishment are already extremely high in India,” says World Vision National Director Jayakumar Christian. “Almost half of all [children under 5] are malnourished, and these droughts and floods are pushing families to the very edge. What is needed is a massive, coordinated response involving the federal and central governments, and local and international [non-governmental organizations] to make sure food aid gets through.”

Christian warned that, without assistance in the wake of these disasters, crop failures and losses would lead to mass migration from rural areas to the cities, increased indebtedness among farmers, parents pulling children out of school to work instead, and increased vulnerabilities for children, including the risk of children being trafficked into labor or sexual exploitation.

Our relief response

World Vision is now seeking $2 million to meet the immediate needs of 100,000 flood survivors who have been driven from their homes into relief camps. The floods have destroyed crops and impacted some 20 million people, with scores of villages cut off. For families like Ravi, his mother and grandmother, relief can’t come soon enough.

“This is definitely of great help to us at this moment,” says Subadramma, referring to the supplies she received from World Vision. “But we would want some alternate place to live in; we don’t want to go back to our village.”