By Sumedha Sharma | Project Leader
Dear Global Givers,
Thank you for your continued support towards our COVID-19 Emergency Food Fund. Through your generous support, iPartner India has reached out to communities and families across 10 cities in India who were on the verge of starvation due to the impact of the nationwide lockdown.
As you are aware, thousands of daily wage workers in India started walking thousands of miles from the cities to their villages whilst desperately battling starvation and sheer exhaustion. Many of these families were not even aware of the distances they would need to travel to reach their villages with young children, elderly parents and disabled people in their midst but since the cities had shut its doors mass exodus was their only option. The oft-repeated phrase that ‘COVID-19 is a great equalizer’ is a misnomer. It is always the poor and vulnerable who suffer disproportionately in any disaster or crisis. Images of millions of migrant families with their children walking thousands of miles to their villages remain imprinted in our memories.
The nationwide lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic lasted for over two months and has had an adverse impact on some of the most vulnerable and marginalised communities in India. Almost a quarter of India’s 1.3 billion people live below the Poverty Line. A staggering 92 per cent of the workforce is part of the informal sector - Daily wage workers, migrant labourers, domestic workers etc. It is this sector that was hardest hit when the lockdown was announced as they had absolutely no safety net and were left to starve as cities were shut down. Another vulnerable group that is
badly affected are students from resource-poor backgrounds who have no access to online courses, street children, homeless people, survivors of trafficking and domestic abuse and commercial sex workers. The rise in domestic violence, child sexual abuse and the risk of young women and girls being trafficked is a real fear.
Your kind and generous support went towards iPartner India’ COVID Food Fund and through this fund, iPartner India and its partners on the ground delivered ration kits for over 6000 families. In addition to food packets, we also distributed hygiene kits, conducted community awareness programmes to educate local people on COVID-19, held series of online counselling sessions, mobilized volunteers and through our partners and stakeholders advocated with the Government to avail government aid to excluded communities.
Even though the country is slowing opening up cities, there are still many cities, which are still imposing lockdown due to the rapid rise of COVID-19 cases. India stands at number 3 in the world with the most reported COVID-19 cases and it will ultimately be the most vulnerable section of the society that will have the greatest impact on.
MANGLA's STORY
*Mangla Madhiwal belongs to a de-notified community and lives in Tonk District of Rajasthan. She is a commercial sex worker and has three daughters and two sons. Her eldest daughter, **Sanjana entered into commercial sex work last year after passing 8th standard in school. Their only source of income is through commercial sex work and ever since the lockdown, Mangla has been running from pillar to pillar asking for whatever food she could from neighbours and local authorities. However, as she does not have any social security identification, she and her family are not eligible to receive aid from the government.
Her family slept without eating for days. Through iPartner India’s support, Mangla was provided with dry ration and basic essentials, which will help the family sustain for 20 days.
With the loss of livelihoods, many families are struggling to come back to the cities and rebuild their lives. For this, we urge you to continue to support us, as thousands of marginalised communities still need our support now more than ever.
Thank you, Global Givers! Your generosity and kind heart continue to inspire us.
With Deep Gratitude,
iPartner India Team
* Name changed to protect the identity
** Name changed to protect the identity
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