By Arun Anand
Pathar Pratima (West Bengal) June 29 (IANS) Children are emerging as one of the worst affected groups among the estimated one million people hit by Cyclone Aila in the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove forest in the world.

The May 25 cyclone that hit India and Bangaldesh killed 138 people in West Bengal alone. The Sundarbans - which cover most of South 24 Parganas district and parts of North 24 Parganas - bore the brunt.

With a large numner of families still living in relief camps, many children are still unable to go to school. The school buildings have either been damaged or turned into breeding grounds of mosquitoes. Most schools do not have any power supply or any regular drinking water supply.

Namita Patra, a class 3 student in the local government primary school at Sitarampur says: “Our text books and school notebooks were washed away in floods after the cyclone. The school building was also damaged. So I don’t go to school these days.” Patra is living in a relief camp with her family.

Fourteen-year-old Usaddosh Dash of the same village says: “The school building in our village was damaged in the cyclone. So the school is closed now.”

According to a multi-sectoral assessment report by Unicef: “The situation is precarious in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts of the Sundarbans area. Approximately 920,000 houses have been damaged, the majority of them in Sundarbans.”

In many places, such as Sitarampur under Pathar Pratima block of South 24 Parganas, the school buildings have been damaged and are yet to be repaired. Where the concrete buildings could withstand the fury of the cyclone, the stagnant water in school premises and in open fields around has led to breeding of mosquitoes, making it dangerous for the children to attend school.

Padma Das is worried about the health of her grandchildren. “After the cyclone they went to school a few days later but there were so many mosquitoes there that they could not sit and study. So they don’t go to school,” she said.

Her house and belongings were wiped out in the cyclone but she is eager to ensure that her grandchildren’s studies do not suffer.

In Iswaripur village under Namkhana block, which has around 600 households, the local school building withstood the fury of the cyclone but stagnant water has led to breeding of mosquitoes and lack of hygiene resulting in children suffering from high fever.

Suraj, 12, had high fever for about a week, like many others in Namkhana block. “I am not going to school. I fell ill a few days after the cyclone. I just lie down the whole day and the fever is very high. I feel weak as there is not much to eat also,” he said.

Local volunteers informed that several such cases have been reported within a span of few days from several villages.

“One of the primary challenges is to provide clean drinking water. The communities are relying on tubewells and handpumps that are proving to be inadequate,” Jyotika, a local volunteer working for the NGO Oxfam India in Namkhana block, told IANS.

“Scarcity of drinking water is a major issue. Health and hygiene remain the major concern since dead carcasses of livestock still lie around the location,” Oxfam said after carrying out a ground assessment in this area recently.

The situation is no different in Inderpur village of Pathar Pratima block. Children and adolescents could be seen wandering around the village as their parents go out to find some work or relief material every day. “We don’t go to school these days. The school is closed. We do not know when it will open,” said one child.

The Unicef assessment report says: “Acute diarrhoea was a major cause of morbidity and vaccination lags behind schedule in this area…

“Lack of adequate food is a major problem in the area and children are already showing signs of moderate acute malnutrition.”

With a severe lack of food and weak disease surveillance, the Unicef has expressed concern that children could easily slip into “severe acute malnutrition”.

In Namakhana and Pathar Pratima blocks, some of the volunteers working in relief camps for cyclone victims informed that malnutrition, diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases are proving to be a major challenge.

According to the Unicef assessment report: “The emergency situation across parts of West Bengal remains grim with close to 195,000 people still living in 485 relief camps following cyclone Aila.”