In India, people beneath the traditional caste system, the Dalits, are particularly badly affected by natural disasters. This summer's monsoon flooding in India is no exception. But with disaster preparedness, disaster-proof housing and not least strong women self-help groups, things can improve.

Every year, the monsoon's cascades of rain create heavy flooding, destroy clay houses in villages, transform rice fields to mud baths and leave millions of poor Indians in a vulnerable situation.

In July, monsoon floods hit India again, predominantly in Orissa, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir - affecting 12.8 million people, including over 5.1 million children.

But things can improve

In the state of Orissa in the eastern part of India, a successfully completed rebuilding project has led to homestead, road, latrine and tubewell raising, ensuring poor Dalit villagers to be safe during the flood season.

This was a project between the Lutheran World Society India (LWSI), DanChurchAid and local villagers in the flooded areas. The rebuilding project from November 2006-May 2007 was financed by the European Commission and has helped approximately 35,000 poor people in the Kendrapara and Jaipur district of Orissa.

We need better houses

"We are all low-caste families. We need better houses that are resistant to cyclons and floodings. New secure houses will alleviate our fears for the next catastrophe," explains the 35-year old Pravati Mohanty from Kendrapara district. She was part of the rebuilding project and is now the leader of one of the women self-help groups in the village of Dasamankul as a result of the rebuilding work.

Her family is one of the 500 lucky ones who now have a new house that is resistant to natural disasters. Just like Pravati Mohanty, millions of Indians lost their homes, belongings and livestock in the rising waters last summer.

Food for work

It isn't just the roof over their heads that disappears when water levels rise in Orissa: cultivated fields are also washed away and thus leaves people without food. Pravati Mohanty's family has thus participated in rebuilding activities where the pay is food. "Food for work" is the name of the project which, with the help of the villagers, works to rebuild houses, dikes and roads.

The project has saved Pravati Mohanty and her family from starving in the period after the floods.

The Dalits - more vulnerable during disasters

The people most affected by the floodings are the Dalits: small-scale farmers, casual workers, single women with children, people with disabilities and also elderly people. The rebuilding project has thus focused on helping these marginalised groups of people.

Despite caste discrimination being outlawed in the Indian constitution, the Dalit's human rights are constantly being breached. When disaster strikes, the Dalit's are the last ones to receive emergency aid:

"The Dalit villages often have to wait the longest to have roads repaired, have their electricity back and have all the millions of practical things sorted out that breaks down during a catastrophe," says Dasharathi Sahoo, DanChurchAid's coordinator for the rebuilding project in Orissa, which ended in May 2007.

New status for the women

There has been a particular focus on the women in the catastrophe emergency operation in Orissa. By intergrating women in the rebuilding work and by establishing self-help groups for them, they now have a new self confidence that has given them the motivation to start up their own projects.

Small microcredit projects have appeared with women at the forefront - they start up group savings accounts for the self-help groups.

It hasn't been without its problems integrating the women in to the rebuilding work, tells Dasharathi Sahoo, who has worked with emergency aid and development projects in Orissa for many years:

"Women have low status in the villages. The villages, and even their own families, won't normally accept women leaving their homes too often. However, the husbands are now becoming more positive towards the women participating in the rebuilding projects where they receive food for their work and thus contribute to the family economy."

From emergency aid to development

One of the biggest challenges with emergency aid operations is to help people to help themselves.

The women self-help groups are a big step in the right direction as experience shows that women play a big role in all emergency aid operations. By involving women in rebuilding activities, they are empowered to play a part in future development work.

"We should avoid creating passive receivers of emergency aid, and for their own sake we need to push them towards helping themselves -for example, by integrating the women and strengthening their social position. In the rebuilding work in Orissa we very quickly moved from catastrophe aid to development aid," says Dasharathi Sahoo.

------------------------ DanChurchAid has a Framework Partnership Agreement with the European Commission, ECHO, enabling DanChurchAid to implement ECHO funded projects worldwide in a broad range of sectors including water and sanitation, food aid, shelter, non-food item to humanitarian mine action. The Orissa rebuilding project was financed by ECHO and implemented by LWSI and DanChurchAid from November 2006-May 2007.