Millions homeless in India after worst floods for a decade

[RonOnGuitar]

Horrible flooding in northeast India. It's hard for me to imagine the scale in millions of people.

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Millions homeless in India after worst floods for a decade

By Justin Huggler in Delhi

13 July 2004





More than two million people have been forced to abandon their homes in north-east India amid the worst floods for more than a decade in south Asia.



In Bangladesh, across the border, as many as three million people were believed to be marooned inside their flooded homes, unable to escape.



At least 241 people have been killed across the region since flooding began in June, and the death toll has risen sharply in the past few days after several rivers burst their banks. A third of Bangladesh is now affected

by the floods, and there are fears that if there is more rain, the waters could advance on the capital, Dhaka.



India's north-eastern states have been cut off from the rest of the country by land, after road and rail links were submerged. There have been flash floods in neighbouring Nepal, where landslides have cut routes from the capital, Kathmandu, to other parts of the country.



In the Indian state of Assam, the chief minister, Tarun Gogoi, issued an SOS call to the central government for help as the massive Brahmaputra river burst its banks, calling for seven helicopters and at least 300 rubber dinghies to rescue people marooned by the floods.



Mr Gogoi said: "Nearly 11,000 houses across the state have been washed away, while an estimated 400,000 other homesteads have been damaged by the worst-ever floods in the area's history." On Friday, 350 children in the state had to be airlifted to safety by an Indian air force helicopter after their school was inundated by the waters. Millions are now sleeping rough in tents on dry stretches of roadway across Assam. Others around the region have taken to the roofs of their homes to escape the rising waters. As well as the danger of drowning, people are at risk from building collapses and water-borne diseases such as cholera. Other dangers include electrocution from power lines collapsing into the floods and the thousands of poisonous snakes trying to escape rising water levels.

[HKRockChick]

We had a domestic helper who worked with my family for over 20 years. She used to come to work at 6am, make us all hot tea, breakfast etc etc. One day she came in late, about 9am - her house (actually a mud hut) had been washed away by serious rain. She woke up and didnt have a roof. I was about 12 maybe at the time - I still remember how matter-of-fact she was about it. We helped her set up a new place, but imagine that! We didnt even realised how she lived before. We take so much for granted. She's dead now, but she was like family for over 20 years!

[RonOnGuitar]

What's difficult for me is to take your story and multiply by millions. All of the individual stories involved.



We have natural disasters in the US, but fortunately they have not affected millions directly. But a major earthquake in LA for example, which by all figuring is due sometime, would change that.



The kindness and goodness of people shines at such times as in your family's story. There was a fire in the apt. building my family lived in and everyone had to leave until it was safe to go back. A black family who had a private home a few houses away took our sizable family in for the night until the next morn, when it was okay to move back in. I was about 7 y.o. at the time, but I'll never forget the kindness and hospitality of that family.

[HKRockChick]

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What's difficult for me is to take your story and multiply by millions. All of the individual stories involved.

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Yes. its very very difficult to deal with. But millions of people in india are starving, uneducated, without homes. Same as in dozens of third world/developing nations. That's why labour is so cheap in these countries, any job is food on the table. This results in cheaper goods and services for first world consumers, but it IS food for starving people, without a social safety net - there is no "unemployment pay" or "dole" in india.



Parents send their kids to work in the fields instead of going to school, simply because its additional income. Its a huge thing to overcome this mindset, but there are people still pushing for grassroots education.



I support groups like ASHA (it means hope) that focuses on education in underserved areas and particularly for women - because to educate the mother is to educate the family.



www.ashanet.org/

[RonOnGuitar]

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That's why labour is so cheap in these countries, any job is food on the table. This results in cheaper goods and services for first world consumers, but it IS food for starving people, without a social safety net - there is no "unemployment pay" or "dole" in india.

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Part of the argument economists who favor "outsourcing" to places like India makes is that it raises the pay-level and living standard of the employees. Which, in theory, will drive local, Indian employers to offer competitive salaries.



I believe the thinking goes something like this: The cost of paying a US worker, including benefits, would be $20 per hour (just grabbing a number). Moving the jobs to India means they can pay Indians half that - $10 per hour or much better pay than they would getting otherwise in India.



How is that notion working so far in India in reality? Are some doing better off due that or ?

[HKRockChick]

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Part of the argument economists who favor "outsourcing" to places like India makes is that it raises the pay-level and living standard of the employees.

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I dont think they give a damn about the pay levels in india. They want to increase their profits and competitiveness in their home countries, or they'll be out of business. Its all business and economics, nothing else.



However, the net result is that there ARE more jobs in india. Salaries ARE being driven up by multinationals - for professional jobs. Once india starts getting too expensive they'll move to a cheaper place, but I dont see that happening for some time.



10US$ per hour in india??????? depends on the job - likely managerial or professional. Most people are lucky to earn 50US$ a MONTH. Chances are your call center guys are earning about 1US$ an hour or even less!



Its difficult to imagine when you live in an affluent country, but such salaries do exist. People digging in dustbins for pieces of bread still exist.

[RonOnGuitar]

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Once india starts getting too expensive they'll move to a cheaper place, but I dont see that happening for some time.

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That might be so, Debbie. But eventually companies will run out of such places



10US$ per hour in india??????? depends on the job - likely managerial or professional. Most people are lucky to earn 50US$ a MONTH. Chances are your call center guys are earning about 1US$ an hour or even less!



I'd have to look at the payscales for diff outsourced jobs, I just grabbed a number there. But it's not the outsourced phone center jobs that get Americans riled up, that's considered usually "first rung" work on the ladder, like McDonald's. Honest work and nothing wrong with it, but not highly sought after work. I think it's more the outsourced hi-tech, science and advanced mfg. jobs (e.g. macrotech work) that upsets folks here.



If correct international job-pay ratio tables on outsourcing are to be had, it would be interesting to look at the stats. I imagine the Indian government keep such stats for India.

[HKRockChick]

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I think it's more the outsourced hi-tech, science and advanced mfg. jobs (e.g. macrotech work) that upsets folks here.

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again, its market forces. Consumers want cheap(er) stuff, they'll go to the next guy if they can get it cheaper; so, if labour, product design, IT, manufacturing etc can be done cheaper, that's how it goes. At the end of the day, companies can keep in business or go belly up, in which case there'll still be job losses, but on a larger scale. When the big stores with economies of scale go into little towns, the small home stores have to close because they cannot compete. Consumers have zero loyalty.



For the few centuries India was a colony the country was robbed blind by the colonisers (imperalists... ;D) The farmers and kings were taxed to the nth degree, diamonds, gold, national treasures, all taken away, to leave a once very rich country, very educated and ancient civilisation in abject poverty. Maybe its time something was returned... Folks in the UK are not liking it very much either



In Hong Kong, expatriates from all over the world (largest percentage from the US) come over and earn thousands more than their local counterparts. Worse, their companies pay for their housing, thereby driving up apartment rents for people who don't get a housing allowance. Not too many people complain about that...



At the end of the day its all about who can make the bigger buck, and they'll go wherever it takes em.