Indian Writing

But read this.

This and this and this. Reliefweb page including appeals here.

Here is a map of the Bihar flood zones.

Some initiatives to help: Here and here and here. Save the Children has an appeal here. Oxfam page here.

Here is a blog on Bihar Flood Relief 2008. Another one is here. They have some suggestions about ways to help and materials that are needed. A Hindi blog here.

More efforts to help here and here. And here is an effort by a group of eunuchs in Ahmedabad.

Ways to help from Mumbai here.

Some pictures of the situation show the grim struggle to provide relief in the midst of the floods. More here.

Mutiny has some pictures here.

Karmayog’s Bihar floods page here.

As always, the above links are not endorsements but only indicative.

Finally, Pratap Bhanu Mehta asks some fundamental questions, including that of our relationship to the tragedy:

We were all a bit slow in recognising what a national calamity this has been. As more news has come in, public consciousness has risen from its slumber; and as always, there have been brave volunteers soldiering in the field against great odds. But the striking thing about our discourse is this. We often think of civil society as filling in for the failures of the state. It could be argued that in these cases the relationship is the opposite. As the credibility of the state erodes (literally), as its ability to stand in for public purpose diminishes and its ability to direct operations comes into question, civil society also falls into disarray. How does one constructively channel the reservoirs of sympathy and willingness to contribute on such occasions? Public willingness does not translate into public purpose without the mediating role of the state. In all likelihood, the systems that are in place will do some palliative relief work. But we will be discussing the same issues again, year after year as the same pictures of misery come in.