Internally displaced persons (IDPs) as a result of the present conflict have become restless in recent days with no hope of either rehabilitation or returning to their home and hearth.
Meanwhile, problems relating to health, hygiene and sanitation continues to bog down the relief measures even as citizen groups continue to contribute and donate food and other essential items to the relief camps.
The conflict rages on with warring groups showing no signs of relenting while the authorities, both the state government and the Centre, are at a loss on how to wriggle out of the complex situation.
Nearly 40,000 internally displaced people are still languishing in several relief camps spread across the state as a result of the present communal conflict which still shows no signs of respite.
Every other day, armed militants continue to take pot-shots at villages near the foothills creating fear and insecure in their own homes and sometimes even attacking the relief camps itself.
The relief camps are opened in almost all the violence-hit districts where district officials are working overtime to ensure food, drinking water and security.
Clubs and organisations get together and come up with donations of clothes and food items to help those in the camps, while groups of MLAs visit the camps and try to make amends with help and deliver a semblance of care and hope from the government.
However, life in the relief camps is difficult and with most communication facilities with family members and relatives cut off as a precautionary measure.
A pregnant woman from Moreh staying in one of the relief camps gave birth to a child. While many of the camps face shortage of drinking water and basic amenities, health and hygiene is of main concern.
A few private hospitals have come up with the idea of organising health camps, but it is just not enough considering the prevailing situation where most of the relief camps are overcrowded.
Most important of all, it is the collective trauma and state of mental health among the refugees especially among the small children, who have had to bear witness to parents and relatives beaten up or killed and being on the run from the marauding mobs assisted by armed militants.
While aid and donations continue, it has become more urgent to evolve a systematic approach to relief and rehabilitation measures on the part of the government.
The Union Home Ministry had recently sanctioned an amount of more than Rs 101 crore for relief measures and we hope this is just a beginning for more to come.
We also fervently pray that the relief fund does not fall into wrong hands. For this, state authorities need to pool in expertise from organisations like International Committee of the Red Cross and Indian Red Cross Society who has been doing such work so that a fool-proof mechanism is developed to ensure that relief is delivered to the right people.
ICRC and many other international organisations are actively engaged in relief works in many countries the world over and they have the expertise and right perspective including neutrality.
Engagement of local clubs instead of political representatives would also be a worthwhile endeavour in such activities.
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