Misguided assistance endangers the indigenous people of the Andaman Islands

The indigenous people of the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Islands did survive the Tsunami catastrophe, but now very misguided humanitarian assistance is threatening the extinction of their culture. This serious accusation against the Indian administration was raised on Tuesday by the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) ten months after the catastrophic flood. "Indigenous people who were self-confident in the past have been turned into paupers and the inhabitants of slums” criticised the GfbV Asia expert Ulrich Delius. "The ignorance of the Indian authorities borders on racism.” In vain the indigenous people asked for tools, so that they could rebuild their traditional wooden houses covered with palms and bamboo, which had been destroyed in the flood. Instead they were crowded into tin huts, which were not suitable for the climate, were badly built and rejected by the indigenous people.

The media throughout the world had reported after the Tsunami catastrophe on the spectacular rescue of the more than 30,000 indigenous people of the Andamans and Nicobars. The great majority of the indigenous population with their knowledge of nature had forecast the threatening flood wave and sought refuge in time further inland. Some of the 572 islands administered by India were only 150 kilometres from the epicentre of the quake on the floor of the ocean on 26th December 2004. About 7,500 inhabitants of the island group died in the natural disaster. As a result of the massive influx from the Indian continent the indigenous people make up today only one tenth of the total population of the total population of the archipelago.

That he would move heaven and earth to assist the Andaman people in rebuilding was the loud claim of the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 5th January 2005. Yet the humanitarian assistance has done more damage than it has helped. "It is a scandal” said representatives of the Indian human rights network to the GfbV. The makeshift tin huts were made of inadequate materials, badly built and erected at the wrong place. Inside the huts it is scorching hot when the sun shines. At the present time, during the monsoon, the rain comes through the palms and the people have to live in mud. Many of the 10,000 new huts are already rusty.

"Instead of providing the indigenous people the aid material asked for – which was really very little – and otherwise leaving them to decide on their future themselves, the Indian authorities are ruthlessly aiming at their assimilation” criticised Delius. Many indigenous people have already been arbitrarily resettled. There is scant attention paid by the authorities to their habits and customs. "What the tsunami did not do is now being achieved by the Indian authorities: a centuries-old culture is threatened with extinctionc”