“My parents are still staying in the village which is fully marooned by water and I have the responsibility of looking after my brother and sister and I have the responsibility to get food for them and protect them from any danger”, said Munna (6 years) while his sister Shilu (5 years) was busy in eating biscuit that Munna has collected from the relief camp and Bhola (3 years) was asleep. Munna is much worried about the health of Bhola as he is very young. He made bamboo platform for his siblings and everyday he literally struggles to get some food items for all and they took shelter in one relief camp in Madhepura. Getting food is not a very easy task for him; he stands in the queue for long and visits nearby areas where some food stuffs are being distributed. Their parents are still living inside the village as they don’t want to leave their house in the fear of losing whatever they could save from flood.
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It is not a unique story that has happened to Munna, Shilu and Bhola. Anyone visiting the flooded areas of North Bihar can find children performing some activities that they usually don’t do during the normal times. They are moving from one flood shelter to another in search of food and sometimes in search of some medical support. In some cases they are denied support as they don’t have the capacity to stand in long queue and sometimes they are ignored because they are children.
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As per the experiences from the relief camps, children have already started suffering from fever, diarrhoea, eye infection. They share the unhygienic environment of the flood shelters. In some places, some special care for children is taken like providing them milk and biscuits but mostly their needs are still unattended. |
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