Rashtriya Sewa Bharati (RSB), which is coordinating the relief operation in Nepal on behalf of various like-minded organisations of Bharat after the devastating earthquake of April 25, has decided to join hands with the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh (HSS) in rehabilitation of the victims in Nepal. Though 12 districts are the worst hit, presently the rehabilitation work will be taken up in six districts only. This work would be done with the help of various like-minded organisations in India.
“Since the rainy season is to begin in Nepal within one and a half months, the immediate challenge is to provide shelter to the victims who are forced to live in open. Keeping it in view we have decided to provide tin shades to the victims in six districts. As the people already have wood and stones to be used as pillars in houses, the tin shades will provide a roof over their head. This work is going to begin shortly,” said Shri Shyam Parande, general secretary of the Sewa International, while talking to Organiser in New Delhi on May 19. He said the help in rehabilitation would depend upon the resources that they collect from the donors. “If we get more help the number of the districts to be covered may increase,” Shri Parande added.
Shri Parande pointed out that the rehabilitation plan has been devised in two phases. Under the first phase, the tin shades would be provided and under the second phase some school buildings and community centres would be built. He said the Sewa International in association with some local organisations in Nepal would also help in making arrangements for education, because most of the school buildings have collapsed.
Shri Parande who was in Nepal for a week after the earthquake said more than 1,600 swayamsevaks of the HSS and other organisations were pressed into relief activity across the affected districts of Nepal. The other organisations which worked with the HSS in Nepal include the Jan Kalyan Pratishthan Nepal, Pashupati Shiksha Samiti, Pragyik Vidyarthi Parishad Nepal, Vishwa Hindu Parishad Nepal, Janjati Kalyan Parishad Nepal and Sewa International Nepal.
Rashtriya Sewa Bharati president Shri Surya Prakash Tonk also briefed the mediapersons about the help extended by the organisation in Nepal. He pointed out that over 15,000 people are feared to have died in Nepal and loss of property is still uncalculated. It is indeed painful for a country with two crore population to bear the brunt of such a magnitude. He said Bharat and Nepal share millennia old cultural, historical and social relationship and it is quite natural for Bharat to extend a timely helping hand in toughest moment of Nepal. People across all states of Bharat, rising to the occasion, collected relief material to be handed over to Rashtriya Sewa Bharati on massive scale. He said till May 19 relief material weighing more than 200 metric tonnes was dispatched and 30 tons more was to be dispatched.
He said many temples, mutts and the heritage buildings of archaeological importance have also been destroyed in different parts of Nepal including Kathmandu. Some buildings include Patan Krishna Mandir, Patan Darbar Square, Basantpur Hanuman Dhoka Darbar Square, Bhaktapur Darbar Square, Taleju Mandir. The loss of historical and culturally important Bhimsen Dharahara nine-storey tower is probably the worst loss. Twelve districts of Nepal including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Dhading, Kabhrepalanchok, Nuwakot, Rasuwa, Dolakha, Gorakha, Ramechhap, Sindhupalchok and Lamjung have been the worst hit. In some of the districts, 90 per cent houses have been destroyed.
Meanwhile the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh also thanked the people of Bharat for rising to the occasion and sending relief material on massive scale through the Rashtriya Sewa Bharati, which delivered the material on time and continues to send even now. —Pramod Kumar
