Christian Aid supports India flood victims

Christian Aid partners are helping to feed the people who have seen all their belongings swept away and food crops destroyed.

As well as rice, lentils and cooking oils, partners are providing temporary shelters for the homeless and clean water and basic sanitation facilities.

Although the Indian government is taking an active role in the relief effort, Christian Aid's head of policy for Asia, Ray Hasan, said colleagues in Andhra Pradesh had reported that government help was not reaching some of the remotest communities.

“Hundreds of hectares of standing crops have been destroyed. The poorest people who had no land of their own to cultivate, now face months without any prospect of field work to sustain themselves," he said.

During times of emergencies, it is the poor who are the worst affected, said Christian Aid.

The aid agency said it had received reports of Dalit communities - formerly known as ‘untouchables’ - being excluded from the relief effort but assured that its partners were working to ensure they had access to help.