COVID-19 relief: Food and Essentials for the poor

When COVID-19 first started spreading across our state of West Bengal in March 2020, one of its strongest effects on the underprivileged communities was evident in the food shortage it created among them.  Countless daily wage earners lost their income during the lockdown and organisations like ours raced to provide them with rations.

Unfortunately, even now, the problems have continued to impact the low-income communities with many such families still dependent on food aid.

After the ease in lockdown restrictions, there was a slight improvement in their conditions. However, the families had barely started earning again when the cases started spiking across India. The 2^nd wave hit us and West Bengal, like the rest of the country, was devastated. The state went under lockdown and the poor families were left without income, yet again.

While there were fewer migrants this time, many of the middle income groups, having lost their jobs during the 1^st wave, were pushed into poverty. Distress calls and messages for food relief started reaching us along with those of medical emergencies. For the poorest, their need for rations surpassed their medical requirements.

 During this difficult time, however, we also continued to receive support for these vulnerable people. The critical conditions on the ground have been a challenge for us all. The pandemic’s effect on the economy hasn’t been easy on our work but the sheer enormity of support from our donors has been extremely helpful. Even children, with their birthday money, have come forward to support our efforts.

The issues among the poor are unlikely to get solved in the immediate future. The 3^rd wave is expected during the month of September but even without a spike in cases, it would take far longer for the livelihood of the affected families to get restored. Kindness and generosity would continue to be the best weapons against this fight. It would keep the families safe, it would help them survive. 

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It was a distress call from a resident that had alerted us about the families in Natagarh—an underdeveloped area on the outskirts of Kolkata.

There were more than 100 families who had lost their income because of the COVID-19 lockdown. While they got some food kits from charitable organization and NGOs during the lockdown, once the restrictions were eased, they no longer received any help. Their income was far from restored. They were families of barbers, tailors and domestic helps. Most people were still, understandably, afraid of the infection and were refusing to employ them.

By the time they reached out, their state was critical. Some of the families had earned only about Rs. 500-600 (6-8 USD) in months. They were starving.

We needed to work swiftly so we deployed our teams for a quick evaluation of the area and reached out to them with rations. Each of our food kits had a full month’s ration for an entire family. With rice, pulses, oil, soya bean nuggets and biscuits, they could make nutritious meals. We also gave them masks as many didn’t have proper ones to keep themselves and others safe.

We helped 103 families that day. Our aid helped them with sustenance while they found ways to earn their living again.

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