THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: SAKHI Women's Resource Centre completed its survey in seven villages in Ockhi-affected areas in coastal Thiruvananthapuram. The team of 30 counsellors and the medical team have been caught off guard with the extent of mental trauma the fishermen and their families have been undergoing. Several fishers and their families are visiting Velankanni and Potta Divine Centre at Chalakudy seeking mental relief. SAKHI and HelpAge India have come forward to provide psychological counselling with the help of psychiatrists from Mental Health Centre, Peroorkada, and Thiruvananthapuram Medical College to people in Pozhiyoor, Poovar, Karimkulam, Kochuthura, Puthiyathura, Adimalathura and Pulluvila.
Over the last two days, 15 local girls in the coastal areas and another 15 psychology degree students from Government Women's College, Thiruvananthapuram, did a preliminary survey. Mercy Alexander, a trustee of SAKHI, said more than 200 fishermen's condition is still traumatic. "They are scared of the sea. They require long-term counselling and sadly the family members are also in a traumatic condition with nothing to satiate their hunger. The condition is pathetic," she told DC.
Though Sakhi had initially planned to undertake the survey just for two days, they could not complete it by then by the volume of the affected fishermen. It led them to extend their survey in Pozhiyoor and Puthiaythura for two days. Once the first leg is completed, the team will offer counselling. Fishermen have brought it to the notice of SAKHI team that when a section of them have braved the seas and gone for fishing are getting a raw deal at the hands of the consumers.
"Fishermen have got no qualms in eating their catch as that is their staple diet. But sadly they complain that several of their regular customers refuse to eat fish saying the fish targeted floating bodies of missing fishermen," she said. The psychiatrists in the team include Dr P. S. Kiran and Dr Indu V. Nair of Mental Health Centre, Peroorkada and senior social scientist Dr E. Nazeer of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College.
