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| Pic courtesy: Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha, Murshidabad |
The Right to Food and Work Network in association with its member organizations has started the food aid programme (as a part of its COVID-19 relief programme) across the districts of West Bengal to reach out to people with essential food items during the ongoing nationwide lockdown. The campaign has been extensively disseminating information concerning schemes proposed by the central as well as the state government and advocating for inclusive public policy measures to cater to the population affected by the curbs announced to combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In spite of our relentless efforts to expand the reach of the Public Distribution System during the present crisis bearing fruits, we still felt the need to arrange for some essential food items for extremely vulnerable sections of our people. Landless cultivators, marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, erstwhile enclave dwellers, women in sex work, urban homeless, tea garden workers, women engaged in 'bidi' making and zari workers are some of the most affected sections which have been identified to be unable to meet their household food expenses. The steering committee of the network decided to reach out to them immediately with a food kit comprising of food grains, pulses, edible vegetable oil, soybean chunks and table salt. We also plan to involve the women-led self-help groups of our member organizations in producing face masks, bar soaps and detergent powders for distribution in our field areas, enabling the self-help groups in nurturing a customer base to explore an additional source of income. The production of such essential personal hygiene items will also be beneficial as the people in our field areas will be able to access them at prices lower than that of the market. Discussions have also been held to assess the feasibility of supporting communities in carrying out sanitization drives to protect the health and livelihood of vulnerable sections.
The regional secretariats of the network are coordinating the food aid programme and the food kits are distributed by our member organizations through the local committees at the panchayat or ward level. Workshops on personal hygiene and training sessions on community-based strategies in combating an epidemic or pandemic have also been planned as and when the red zone restrictions ease.
The food aid programme has benefitted close to eight thousand families across twenty districts of West Bengal, with the individual beneficiaries estimated to be over thirty thousand. We also plan to start with the second phase of our operation, wherein our member organizations will take the final decision in allocating the resources for a purpose deemed necessary by their respective decision-making committee(s).
In spite of our relentless efforts to expand the reach of the Public Distribution System during the present crisis bearing fruits, we still felt the need to arrange for some essential food items for extremely vulnerable sections of our people. Landless cultivators, marginal farmers, agricultural labourers, erstwhile enclave dwellers, women in sex work, urban homeless, tea garden workers, women engaged in 'bidi' making and zari workers are some of the most affected sections which have been identified to be unable to meet their household food expenses. The steering committee of the network decided to reach out to them immediately with a food kit comprising of food grains, pulses, edible vegetable oil, soybean chunks and table salt. We also plan to involve the women-led self-help groups of our member organizations in producing face masks, bar soaps and detergent powders for distribution in our field areas, enabling the self-help groups in nurturing a customer base to explore an additional source of income. The production of such essential personal hygiene items will also be beneficial as the people in our field areas will be able to access them at prices lower than that of the market. Discussions have also been held to assess the feasibility of supporting communities in carrying out sanitization drives to protect the health and livelihood of vulnerable sections.
The regional secretariats of the network are coordinating the food aid programme and the food kits are distributed by our member organizations through the local committees at the panchayat or ward level. Workshops on personal hygiene and training sessions on community-based strategies in combating an epidemic or pandemic have also been planned as and when the red zone restrictions ease.
The food aid programme has benefitted close to eight thousand families across twenty districts of West Bengal, with the individual beneficiaries estimated to be over thirty thousand. We also plan to start with the second phase of our operation, wherein our member organizations will take the final decision in allocating the resources for a purpose deemed necessary by their respective decision-making committee(s).
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| Pic courtesy: Swayam, Howrah |
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