Reeling under the worst of floods in recent times, massive relief operations have been launched in Bihar to rehabilitate the victims. Food supplies are now being distributed to thousands of displaced people everyday.
For 60-year-old relief camp worker, Bhim Sharma, the day begins at 4 in the morning. He manages a kitchen for 10,000 flood victims. Here, food starts being served at 9 am and by the time its over, its 3 am the next morning.
“There’s no time to rest, the crowds are so huge. We do face difficulties sometimes,” said Bhim Sharma.
And for all that work, he is often at the receiving end of the anger and frustration of flood victims. What they don’t realise is that he too is a victim.
The flood drowned all his fields. But here, it’s a deluge of hungry people and no one has the patience.
Pankaj Rai is another relief camp worker, who spent a harrowing 10 days running away from the high water in Supaul district with his wife and three kids.
Now at the relief camp, he is trying to put the trauma behind him, working hard so that people don’t go hungry like he did.
“I told them I have nothing to fall back on, our chief here told us to join work. I meet others here, it feels better,” said Pankaj Rai.
The scale of the operation is staggering on an average a 1000 to 1500 kilos of rice, as much vegetable and about 10 cylinders of gas gets consumed everyday.
Food the most basic need and also the most widely criticised aspect of relief operations in Bihar but when we look at the other side of the fence an extraordinary tale unfolds of what it takes to put together these mamoth kitchens.