Editors’ Note: AID has had a strong relationship with the Breakthrough Science Society (BSS), a Kolkata-based organization founded in 1995 to foster a values-based dialogue at the interface of science and civil society. As part of its vision of a humanistic science, BSS has been involved in relief and rehabilitation work at a variety of disaster sites, including among others the Orissa cyclone of 1999 and the Bhuj Gujarat earthquake of 2001.  In January 2005, the BSS along with the Medical Service Center (MSC) sent a joint team from Kolkata to Tamil Nadu to help with relief efforts. AID funded $15,000 for the traveling medical team. In the email below, Dr Soumitro Banerjee, founder- General Secretary of BSS and a faculty member at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur describes their rehabilitation initiative. Edited for language. 

….After the Bhuj earthquake (of 2001) we found that the education system was the most neglected aspect of the government rehabilitation programme. So we teamed up with some other organizations (working there) to rebuild a school that was completely destroyed in the earthquake. In fact that proved to be the first school that started functioning in that locality.

In the months following the Tsunami too, we concentrated on the literacy sector. We opened a library in Pudukuppam Village, near Parangipettai, Cuddalore district. We collected some 160 books, all from individuals. Using Rs.10,000 from the Tsunami relief funds we bought more literacy and popular science books in Tamil. Vishwagram, an organization from Gujarat built a children's park and a room in village Pudukuppam and were kind enough to make the room available for our library. At present the library has gathered one steel almirah, two wooden benches, one wooden table and around 100 patrons, all of whom await only volunteer staff! Shortage of volunteers has restricted library hours to a few hours once a week.

In our work in the aftermath of the Orissa super cyclone as well as the recent Tsunami, we noted a serious environmental peril: inundation of cultivable land by saltwater. Resumption of cultivation depends crucially on the condition of the soil, but cultivators, not only those who are disaster-affected but across our rural areas, have no way of getting the soil scientifically tested. Instead they depend on the advice of fertilizer merchants. To supply more reliable information, we are planning a soil testing laboratory in Calcutta to which our volunteers send soil samples collected from far-flung areas to be tested by our Calcutta volunteers on Sundays. The soil testing facility supplements our existing arsenic testing work.

The good news is that all these activities are funded out of the initial grant money we received from AID at the time of the Tsunami, some of which we saved for contingency situations, as well as grants for other programs. With small donations from well wishers, these two saved funds will suffice in purchasing the minimum equipment for soil testing.        

That, in a nutshell, is the rehabilitation work we bring science to do. As for building houses and restoring livelihoods, the state must bring in its own resources.