Imphal: Caritas India, the charity wing of the Indian Catholic bishops, plans to conduct psycho social counseling for the survivors of a recent earthquake in Manipur, northeastern India.
This has become necessary after the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), a unit of the federal Ministry of Home Affairs, warned of an impending mega earthquake in most part of northeastern India, a highly volatile seismic zone.
Manipur was among the worst affected states in northeastern India when a 6.7 magnitude quake hit the region in December 2015. The people are desperate to shift to a new location to escape if the quake strikes.
A Caritas team has identified some 500 poor affected families of Tameglong and Senapati districts of the state for such support.
Anjan Bag, Emergency Desk Manager at Caritas India, says the residents of Kabui Khullen, the quake’s epicenter village, now live in fear of the next big quake.
The aid worker says Manipur needs to become disaster resilient after it managed to become largely conflict resilient.
The state had faced floods in July 2015.
Northeastern Indian region suffers from secessionism, internecine fights among its hundreds of ethnic groups, drug addiction among youth and various other social illnesses. Disasters add to the people’s woes.
Meanwhile, Caritas India opened bank accounts to disburse 5,700 rupees for each family to undertake house repairs.
The total cost of this project is estimated at 3.5 million rupees.
A major challenge for the agency is the remoteness of the villages that require assistance. The nearest town of the tribal-dominated area where the agency is working is Noney, some 30 km away. It is some 110 km from the capital city of Imphal, Bag explained.
After the July floods, Caritas had distributed vegetable seeds and weaving threads to 110 in Chandel district and 380 others in Thoubal district.
Fr. Frederick D’Souza, Executive Director of Caritas India, said that was “our humble gesture toward building livelihood support of the affected communities.”