COVID-19 Lockdown Makes Meeting Ends Difficult

COVID-19 Lockdown Makes Meeting Ends Difficult

Keja Bai Nishad lives with her 22-year old son, Ishwari, in Deori village of Dharsiwan block in Raipur district. The lockdown, imposed to flatten the COVID-19 curve, has meant a complete loss of income for the family. Keja Bai is too weak to indulge in any economic activity. Ishwari was working in a nearby sponge iron factory as a daily wage labourer; that factory has been shut since the lockdown. This was their only source of income. 

Without wages since March 25, the situation at home simply deteriorated. They ran out of food. Keja Bai and Ishwari couldn’t even avail the ration from the PDS shop, which the government had announced, because they did not have their ration cards. On probing further it came to light that since their names were not on the voters list of the panchayat, their ration cards weren’t made. When the issue was brought before the Sarpanch he provided the family with some ration to tide over for a few days. 

Oxfam India and Samerth Charitable Trust have been working together to provide dry food ration kits to the families of daily wage labourers and stranded migrant workers in Raipur.  The focus is to provide ration kits to families who do not have ration cards or are persons with disabilities who simply cannot afford to get work or food during the lockdown period. 

Keja Bai’s family was one of the 385 families that Oxfam India reached out to in urban and rural Raipur. The ration kit provided to them includes rice, flour, pulses, sugar, salt, tea, and bathing and washing soaps.

100 such ration kits were donated by Oxfam India to Donations on Wheels which is a state government door to door initiative to collect food/ration/cash for those worst affected in the COVID-19 pandemic. Oxfam India is also reaching out to tribal families in Korba and Gariaband through our partner, KHOJ. 

 

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