NAMBIARNAGAR, JANUARY 4 When nine primary school teachers from neighbouring Thanjavur walked into this village in Nagapattinam today to talk to survivors, they could not have imagined what awaited them.

As soon as several parents came to know of their visit, they crowded around and started pleading with them to take away their children, admit them in any school with a hostel. They said they did not want their children to grow up in coastal villages and become fishermen like themselves, anymore. The rage of the sea had shaken their confidence, they said, and they were not sure about their own future. ‘‘They begged the teachers to take their sons and daughters away,’’ says Deepu, volunteering for relief work here for Pedestrian Pictures.

‘‘They reasoned that with their boats and houses destroyed it would take a long time to restore their livelihood. They doubted if they will be able to take care of the children and give them a future,’’ says Deepu.

Obviously, the teachers were in a fix.

‘‘It seems they have all decided that their children should not become fishermen and live in coastal villages. It will be easy for us to take the orphans away, but I don’t know about others,’’ says R Panneerselvan, a teacher for Sikal.

‘‘Two teachers immediately sat down and started noting down the names of children whom the parents wanted to be sent away. In all, some 28 parents registered 60 children,’’ says M Jayanthi, a coordinator of South Indian Fishworkers Society (SIFS). Jayanthi, who has been with the villagers since December 27, says the survivors have lost all confidence in themselves.

The parents’ anxiety is also driven by the fact that the state government has asked fishermen not to fish near the coast for at least three months as bodies, and aquatic life affected by the tsunamis, are being washed ashore continuously.

‘‘The parents even said they will give away the compensation they will receive for deaths and injury, to the teachers to send the kids to schools,’’ says Deepu.

Among the 60 children, 19 are orphans. ‘‘Relatives of orphans say they want to send their own children along to hostels or even orphanages because they feel they have a better future there,’’ says Kala, a volunteer with SNEHA, an NGO.

At the Natarajan Damayanti school, where survivors from Nambiarnagar are being sheltered, parents told this reporter: ‘‘More than us, the children are suffering here. They insist on going to school in the morning even when we are here in this camp.’’

Says Anandraj, father of three: ‘‘I know I won’t be able to send my three children to school anymore because I have lost my source of livelihood. I am even willing to send my children to an orphanage. At least, they will grow up in a better environment and have a better future.’’ He has registered the names of his three children—Sivabalan, Bhanumati and Vijaybala—with an orphanage in Sikal, 15 kms from Nagapattinam.