Kanyakumari: After the Cyclone Ockhi brought destruction to south India in late November last year, Ambica’s husband Crispin’s dead body was brought ashore to Neerody village in the Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu. A week did not pass that the district collector personally delivered a compensation cheque of Rs 20 lakh to Ambica. Crispin who was a daily-wage worker on a fishing boat, used to earn around Rs 200 a day along with a percentage of the profits from each catch.

The immediate compensation is a welcome relief for her, but it can’t make up for Ambica’s loss. Neither is the money going to be of any real use to her in her crucial time of need. She aims at using a part of the money to repay a loan of Rs 64,000 which was taken by her husband from the Indian Bank in Thoothoor by mortgaging their relatives’ jewellery. But the bank won’t permit her to close the loan without showing a death certificate.

Many of the kin of those killed by Ockhi hasn’t received death certificates till now. Ambica produced Crispin’s post-mortem report as a proof, but the bank are not going to accept it. “I am in a very difficult position. They (the relatives) call me every day; they need the jewellery back next month as their daughter is getting married. I just want to repay this loan and fulfill my husband’s obligations,” she said.

A missing person is can be declared dead only when there hasn’t been any report of news of him or her for at least seven years from the time they are reported missing. But during natural disasters like Ockhi, as was the case with the tsunami which occurred in 2004, those who are still missing after the tragedy even with the end of search and rescue operations are declared dead to enable their dependents to access their legitimate claims.

Tamil Nadu (TN) too followed Kerala steps and announced relief of Rs 20 lakh each for the kin of 177 missing fisherfolk who’ve been presumed dead, amounting to a total of Rs 35.5 crore. It was already paying Rs 20 lakh to the next of kin of the confirmed dead and those whose bodies were easily recovered and identified through DNA tests. Another Rs two lakh is expected to be sanctioned from the Centre.

The relief money has now become a new problem for Ambica, who presently lives with her in-laws. “My mother-in-law wants Rs two lakh even though she runs a local provision store and can support herself. I have two girls (ages 11 and 12) who I have to educate and take care of, but she insists on taking a share of the money,” says Ambica. It is difficult for her to find a proper job as she has only studied up to middle school.

Women are widowed often and at a young age in the fishing communities, a working son can only become support they have in their old age. This generates a lot of problems within the family when the sole earning member is lost. While the wife will receive the natural right to compensation after her husband’s death, sometimes young women will have to return to their parents’ homes with the relief money received, leaving their mothers-in-law without any type of support.

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