Emergency Food and Medicine for Kolkata's Poorest

Hunger has the most pernicious effect on the poor: already vulnerable, with unhealthy living conditions and lacking basic necessities like clean water and electricity, hunger drags a family so low that no amount of effort will help them climb out of the desperate cycle of poverty.  Without enough food a labourer hasn’t the energy to work; a child can’t concentrate in school; the sick won’t recover; the weak fall sick. And you can only imagine how a parent feels when she cannot feed all the hungry mouths.

This project aims to provide emergency food and healthcare to help a family through a particularly rough period. With full stomachs, all the family members can start to function again.

Saheen is still at school. Her father died recently leaving her mother to support her son and two daughters. Saheen’s mother is a maidservant – which is extremely low paid and often exploitative work. It is typical for poor illiterate women to take up this kind of work.  On a monthly income of  Rs4000 (£43 or $56) the family cannot survive. It is vital that the children remain in education so that they are able to secure good jobs and take care of themselves and their mother.  A regular food ration from Tiljala SHED makes all the difference: the children can concentrate in school because they have enough to eat and the ration is also an incentive for the mother to keep the children in education.

Farah’s life has become very difficult. She remained in school until class 10 and left to become a shop assistant. She worked in a tiny shop in Kolkata’s Burrabazaar selling cheap jewellery. She recently fell in love with a boy and married him against the wishes of the boy’s family (presumably because she brought no dowry). The boy’s family summoned him home leaving Farah pregnant, jobless and destitute. Farah had supported her widowed mother but now she has a baby and cannot work. They are all very hungry and in need of rations to help them through this period.

My colleagues in Kolkata report how important these food rations are and how the recipients are moved to tears when they realise they can feed their families. Thanks to your generosity – you are saving families from hunger and despair.

My two colleagues, Ayesha and Parveen, have sent through case studies of families who badly need food rations.

It is festival time in Kolkata: the Pujas and Diwali bring families out to the shops and the markets. It is traditional to buy new clothes for the festive season as well as spending time and money eating and spending time with family and friends. Giant brightly-lit and colourful structures, called pandals, are built all over the city and families enjoy walking around enjoying the spectacle.

But I wonder how these two women have spent the holidays: Rabia is a widow. She is 61 years old and lives in a single room with her extended family of 8.  This is what my colleague Ayesha writes: Rabia’s husband expired five years ago. Since then she herself takes care and full responsibility of the family. Her daughter Roshni (age 26) has been deserted by the husband and staying with the mother for the past two years. She prepares paper packets and sells them to the grocers and thus earns a little amount (£6 a month). She has two children. Due to financial crisis is unable to send them to good school. Rabia has 14 year old son who is a child labourer and works in a garage.  Her sister Shakila is also a widow who is disabled and has to beg to help run the family.  Rabia herself is a maidservant, earning $13/£10 a month. Her son earns another £10 and her nephew earns around $9/£7. Between the 8 of them, 4 are working and the total family income is about $39/£30.   If any of them were to fall sick and need medical they would be in even more serious trouble.   

But perhaps Rabia and her family are lucky. Nagma lives on the street.  She too lives with 7 other family members. Read what my colleague Parveen has written:      There are 8 members in the family living on the foothpath. Nagma  tries her best to make ends meet despite the challenges she faces. Her husband is a van puller and although earning  approx. 3000/-  ($42) in a month he hands over very little to the family. Mother is a domestic maid. She is often sick. She also begs near the mosque. Her brother Nehu has liver jaundice and was hospitalised recently. He is having medicines   Another brother named Nasir has tuberculosis  and recovered few months ago but is very weak and hence cannot work . Previously he  used to wash taxis  and  contributed to the family. They face a lot of harassment living on the street and live in constant fear of eviction. The family is going through severe crisis and would be grateful if the emergency food is given to them.      

Thanks to your generosity, Tiljala SHED is able to provide emergency food rations and medical care for some of Kolkata’s most vulnerable families.  Not only are the families very grateful but also my colleagues, who hate to turn away genuinely desperate families.  Almost all Tiljala SHED’s funds are restricted to specific programmes providing education, training and small loans – and they are excellent programmes. But this project enables us to reach out quickly and efficiently to those in immediate and very present need of help.  Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.  PLEASE KEEP SUPPORTING KOLKATA’S MOST VULNERABLE