A help page for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.

Here is the an update on the progress of HelpMumbai as of February 2009:

On behalf of the citizens of Mumbai, the HelpMumbai team, along with BCPT endeavored to reach out to all affected families – deceased and injured, rich and poor, Mumbaikars and those residing in other parts of the country.

Since the Taj Group of Hotels, the Oberoi Group of Hotels, the Police and the NSG immediately announced to take care of their own personnel, and since other NGOs had announced their intention of supporting the victims admitted to JJ and GT hospitals, BCPT therefore concentrated on contacting 72 families of the deceased victims and 80 of those who were injured as they did not fall in any of the above categories. Additionally, 11 families were referred to the HelpMumbai and BCPT with a request to extend support. These were also included in the list.

We focused on 72 families of the deceased victims. Of these, we contacted 66 families but were not able to locate 6 families since some addresses were incomplete, homes were locked and phone numbers were wrong.

Of the 66 families, the families of 20 deceased victims require help. The remaining 46 families have stated that they do not require help or are receiving required support from other sources. 20 of those decesed have left behind

28 minor children
6 retired and dependent parents
11 widows and
1 family has lost both parents.

The families contacted by us all required support. They are going through a very difficult time and have yet to come to terms with their loss. The widows are traumatized as they all have young children and now have to work out ways of caring for the family single-handedly. Most of them are housewives, so they also have to prepare themselves to step out of their houses and earn a livelihood.

A few of the deceased victims were unmarried, and yet were the main bread winners of their family. In these families the dependents include old parents and siblings – small children and/or young adults.

Some of the families were living in small rented houses in low income neighborhoods. With no steady income now, they are faced with the situation of having to move out of these houses and either move in with relatives or go back to their hometowns.

One of the deceased was a taxi driver who drove a rented taxi to earn money. He is survived by his wife and two young children aged 5 and 3. They are currently in Mumbai but will go back to their village, where they do farming. He was the only earning member of the family. His father has cancer. He used to send money home to his village every month for the treatment of his father. One of his brothers is also a taxi driver in Mumbai. He has another brother who is going to come to Mumbai now to earn.

A young woman who lost her life used to work as a domestic help to support her family. She lost her life in the bomb blast at Wadi Bunder. She is survived by her husband and two young sons. Her husband sells fish from door to door for a living and does not have a fixed income. It was his wife whose monthly income was used to support their family. Her husband and children currently stay in a rented house. However, since her husband does not have a fixed income, paying rent and school fees has become difficult for him.

Of the 80 injured victims to be contacted, 7 could not be contacted because of inadequate addresses. Thus 73 victims were contacted. Of these, 62 victims do not need help or are receiving the required support from other sources. Thus presently 11 cases are under consideration. One of them is severely injured and requires educational support for his child as well as some support for his wife to compensate for loss of income to the family. The remaining victims are at present using the compensation provided by the government and/or the railways. A few of them expect that once that is exhausted they may still need support for an additional period of 2 to 4 months.

A man injured during the shooting at CST was admitted to hospital, and has not yet been discharged. Due to the nature of his injuries, he will be bed-ridden for at least six months in the hospital and a year at home. He has a wife and a four year old son. His wife used to do embroidery work at home through which she earned about Rs.4,000 a month. However, due to her husband’s injury and hospitalization, she cannot continue with the work, leading to the loss of her income. Having no income and no other relatives in Mumbai for support, she has been forced to send her son back to their village.

 Commitment for support:

Keeping in view the funds received so far as donations, the details for extending support to the families of the victims of the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks has been reworked as under:

Disbursements:

The process of disbursement has begun and cheques to 20 children and 3 parents (senior citizens) have been issued.

Thank you for visiting us here and supporting our cause.

Very Best,
The HelpMumbai team.

If you have queries or comments, please write to Netra Parikh, Dina Mehta or Asfaq Tapia at helpmumbai@pinstorm.com

-- A help page for the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, maintained by Pinstorm --