As a mass exodus of migrant workers from cities to villages is creating huge problems for the government, several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have come forward to provide food, shelter and other resources to them.
A website – covid-relief.in – has also been set up by the Delhi government where all such NGOs are listed, and can be contacted by relief agencies as well as the needy for free distribution of food and clothes.
Well-sanitised kitchens have been set up at various places in the national capital and fresh food along with packets of essential grocery items are being supplied under the guidance of the local administration and police.
In Connaught Place, a huge kitchen has been set up in E block by traders’ association which includes owners of some of the prominent food chains.
The kitchen provides free lunch and dinner to private security guards, drivers and jobless workers of the nearby areas.
Amid the 21-day lockdown, well-known NGO Prabhaav Foundation has come up with a novel idea.
It is providing entire ration packets to low-income groups to survive through a fortnight.
“The free ration pack includes 5kg rice, 3kg atta (wheat flour), 1 litre of edible oil, pulses, 1kg of sugar and plenty of other things including spices,” said Bharti Puri Sharma of Prabhaav Foundation.
For free distribution of ration, the NGO has selected pockets mainly consisting of slum areas or where workers of low income groups reside.
Co-founded by Parul Kumar and associated with the NITI Aayog, Prabhaav Foundation is working in close co-ordination with the Delhi police.
Another Delhi-based NGO, Rasoi on Wheels Foundation, is preparing several thousands of food packets to be distributed throughout the day at various points in the city.
“We have to reach out to the needy, provide them fresh food pockets... but at the same time we also ensure all measures to safeguard our volunteers from being infected by the dreaded virus,” said Manika Badhwar of the Rasoi Foundation.
The NGO, as the name suggests, is a mobile kitchen and serves free meal boxes to the underprivileged.
Another NGO, MCKS Food for Hungry Foundation, is also carrying out such activities.
“We are distributing food to over 12,000 people daily since the lockdown. The food consists of bread, rusk, khichdi etc., which are being prepared at our main kitchen in Vasant Kunj. Seeing the volume of the distribution, a satellite kitchen has also been established at Punjabi Bagh,” MCKS team member Sejal told IANS.
Homeless people sit in lines outside a shelter to get food in New Delhi yesterday.
