ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the consequences of disrupting the system through which house ownership is acquired in “normal” times through post-disaster housing reconstruction projects that foresee the distribution of free houses to all. It shows that the implementation of the government policy at the community level, which entailed land acquisition, negotiating with nongovernmental organization (NGO) and contractors, and handling the distribution of large numbers of new houses, turned out to be an overwhelming task for local governance institutions. The chapter is based on in-depth ethnographic research in Kameshwaram, a village in Nagapattinam district, and on rapid appraisals in an additional 10 tsunami-affected villages in coastal Tamil Nadu. Governments, international humanitarian agencies, and NGOs often assume that elderly people are taken care of by their children. The chapter argues that both formal and informal post-disaster reconstruction governance is strongly influenced by normative values according to which widows, widowers, and elderly people are taken care of by their children.
