DARK NIGHT

Of the estimated 35 lakh people affected by the floods in Bihar, 3 lakh are living in the 260 relief camps set up by the government. The Sunday Express spends a night at a camp in Araria district, where the residents pray for a way out of the darkness

Bathnaha, Araria district
It8217;s 10.30 p.m. Sitting under the open sky, 40-year-old Khalil Shah is wondering what the holy month of Ramzan holds for him this year. After spending six days on the roof of his house in Maalkusaha village of Supaul district, one of the worst affected by the floods in Bihar, Shah and his family were rescued the day Ramzan began and brought to a relief camp in Bathnaha in Araria district.
8220;I am unable to keep a fast. I am running a high fever and have severe dehydration. Why did this have to happen during Ramzan,8221; he asks.
Sleeping next to him is his youngest son, nine-month-old Noor Alam. A little distance away, another of his eight children, seven-year-old Tanveer, is inconsolable. 8220;He is hungry. He was turned away by those who were distributing food,8221; says Shah.
An intervention by The Sunday Express team ensures that Tanveer gets his meal8212;freshly cooked rice and dal, which is enough to feed three people.
Tanveer8217;s mother promptly distributes the extra food among the other members of the family.
8220;Ab to aise hi sarkar ke rahmo-karam par rahna padega. Pata nahin kab tak ghar ja payenge. Kam se kam teen mahine lagenge Now we will have to survive at the mercy of the Government. I don8217;t know how long this will go on. Not less than three months, I guess,8221; he says.
But Shah knows he is lucky to have found a place at one of the better-managed relief camps. Most of the over 5,000 residents of this camp, including Shah8217;s family, have been housed in strong, all-weather tents provided by the Border Security Force. Each tent can accommodate up to 40 people. The inmates are served two meals a day and there is no rationing. A few hand pumps have been installed within the camp to provide safe drinking water. One of the tents, which serves as a store, has sacks of grains stacked inside. Another acts as a temporary clinic with all basic facilities and medical assistants available 24 hours a day. An ambulance remains on stand-by and also acts as a mobile clinic for some smaller camps. A generator runs throughout the night to light up the common areas.
8220;Sarkar intezaam to bahut kiya hai The government has made a lot of arrangements,8221; Shah admits. But this sentiment is not shared by everyone. Karim Mian has apparently been pleading with the camp in-charge since morning for a candle. He has also not been allotted space inside government tents and has to make do with makeshift arrangement on the periphery of the camp. 8220;How long will we be able to live in this tent made of saris and chunnis? As you can see, we are living in complete darkness. Agar sarkar ek mombatti bhi nahi de sakti to hum kya umeed rakhen If the Government can8217;t even provide a candle, what can we expect from it?8221; he asks.
Others from neighbouring tents join in the chorus of complaints. 8220;We are not even getting food. You talk to the in-charge on our behalf. But we know nothing is going to happen,8221; says one of them.

It8217;s about 11.30 p.m.
The camp in-charge, 46-year-old Kailash Jha, a junior engineer in Araria district, is asleep in the store and certainly not pleased to be woken up. 8220;I have been working non-stop since morning. This is not the right time for the media to come to the camp,8221; he says.
8220;I am not saying this is the perfect arrangement. But tell me, don8217;t you start planning at least three months in advance even for a small function at your home? Here, I have to take care of more than 5,000 people and there was hardly any reaction time. But things are slowly improving. We started with providing just one meal a day. I am glad we are able to give inmates two meals now8212;rice flakes in the morning and cooked rice and dal in the evening. As we get more time to organise ourselves, things will become more streamlined,8221; says Jha.
8220;Sir, can I get a sack to sleep on?8221; an old man8217;s voice interrupts our conversation. 8220;No, there are no sacks. Am I not sleeping on the ground like the rest of you?8221; Jha snaps back. The old man retreats into the darkness.
Jha is eager to resume the conversation. 8220;The quantity of food being given to each individual is enough to feed two or three people. People can keep aside the extra amount and eat it when hungry. But it8217;s sad that many people throw away the extra food behind their tents. I can show you that.8221;

The candles are all burnt out and there is complete darkness in the camp. Almost. A light flickers inside one of the tents. Reena Devi, 22, sits glumly in the faint light as a relative tries to console her. 8220;Kuch karenge. Aise baithe to nahi rah sakte. We will do something. We can8217;t be sitting idle,8221; he tells her.
Reena8217;s husband ran a kirana shop in Bishnupur village, which was destroyed in the floods. She is still to recover from that shock. 8220;Sab kuch beh gaya. Pata nahi kya hoga hamara. Everything has been swept away. I don8217;t know what will happen to us,8221; she says.
We mumble words of assurance and move towards the only brightly lit part of the camp: the dispensary. Medical assistants from neighbouring hospitals are attending to patients, most of whom fell sick because of eating uncooked food and drinking floodwater while waiting to be rescued from their villages.
Medical assistants say none of the camp residents has any serious illness. But a number of them were dehydrated and were given saline drips, they add, pointing to a girl of 12 who is being administered a bottle of water.
It8217;s past midnight and we prepare to leave the camp. A group of young men sits chatting outside the camp, chatting. What do you do through the day, we ask them. 8220;Kya karenge, sir? Kuch kaam to hai nahi. Ek dusre ka dukh sunte hain. Yehi hamara entertainment hai aur time bhi kat jaata hai What can we do? We have no work here. We listen to each other8217;s woes. This is our entertainment and this is how we pass our time.8221; At the camp, time is one thing the residents have in plenty.