By Krishnakuntala Banerji | Communication Manager
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 2nd 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 1st 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 3rd 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.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
