A couple of days ago, somewhat heavy rainfall in the capital resulted in a flooded Gurugram.
My beef is not with Gurugram or its many residents who, I am sure, suffer from heavy rainfalls and an unequivocally bad drainage system. But the scale of the disaster in the North East is much larger.
Little do people know, just like the rest of the country that there are hundreds in the North Eastern states of our country who have been displaced from their homes due to severe floods.
And this is not an event unique to 2018. This happens every year. Literally.
Why don’t we know about it? Because nobody really talks about it. Not the TV news for starters and nobody really bothers reading the 5th page of a newspaper.
FYI, more than a 1000 people have died in these floods in the 7 states since June 2018. For the mathematically challenged, that’s a period of 3 months.
Has anyone seen this yet?
That there, is the Chief Minister of Nagaland, asking for our help to save OUR people.
Are they not a part of this country, that we so rave about when people from the North East become global icons?
In Nagaland alone, 4000 families have been evacuated. The state government is currently seeking the help of the central government to carry about relief operations.
Did most of us know about this?
If the answer is no, then you must understand that there is something broken about our society which allows us to completely ignore a part of our country and leave it to die.
Where are the 1000 crore relief packages? Surely, the Kumbh Mela wasn’t more important than the lives of the lakhs of people that live here.
Currently, the three rivers in Assam, the Dhansiri, Brahmaputra and Jia Bharali, are flowing above the danger level, compelling 1,488 people to stay in relief camps.
In 2017, more than one lakh people had been affected. Google the data for the year before that and the year before that.
This happens almost every year.
So why the lack of empathy when it comes to the seven sisters?
Note: Here’s where you can donate to help.