COVID-19

With over 5.40 million confirmed cases and over 3.49 lakh deaths worldwide, the COVID-19 is impacting lives in ways that the world hadn’t fathomed, not for nearly a century. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19, a pandemic on March 11, 2020. In India, over 1.51 lakh people are infected with the Novel Coronavirus and over 4000 have died. These numbers are increasing with every passing day. We are towards the end of the 4th phase of the lockdown, which was an essential step to flatten the curve. Though the peak is yet to come in the next few months.

However, what the lockdown did was to render millions of migrant workers jobless, without money, without food and without any transportation to return home. News channel and social media platforms are flooded with photos and videos of millions of migrant workers walking home, women and children included. This is a blatant human rights violation.

In 1st and 2nd wave of COVID-19, we have reached out to about 7,000 people with 15 days dry ration and distributed about 2,000 packets of cooked meal; made Unconditional thousands of Cash Transfers; distributed 5,000 safety kits. RAH Foundation’s team covered Prayagraj station, Leader Road, Kareli, Khuldabad, Nakhas kohna, Samdabad, Attarsuiya, Kala Danda, Dariyabad, Atala, Mansoorpark, Roshan Bagh, Dr Kadju Road, Subzi Mandi, Chowk, Ghantaghar area in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh and followed all the government safety protocol of Covid 19.

Why we need to respond

The lockdown was important to flatten the curve but it had disastrous impact on lakhs of migrant workers in the country. They were left to fend for themselves after factories shut down and they had no money left to pay their rents or buy food. With no means to travel, with trains and bus services coming to a grinding halt, the desperate workers began their arduous journey back home on foot. 

The lockdown has affected migrant workers and daily wage earners the most; informal workers constitute 90% of our Indian workforce. And while the Coronavirus doesn’t discriminate, the worst impact will be on these lakhs of workers who come from some of the most marginalized communities and are most vulnerable in this pandemic. The lockdown means they will have to go without wages; they depend on daily wages to meet their everyday basic requirement—food, medicines and even water. This will push them further into poverty.

Lack of access to free and quality healthcare means that they do not have access to medical care if and when they are diagnosed with COVID-19. India ranks 145th among 190 countries in terms of quality and accessibility of healthcare. 

While there is no specific drug for the disease, isolation and maintaining personal hygiene (washing hands regularly with soap and water or using a sanitizer) is recommended to be the best prevention and solution at the moment. But this is a difficult ask for many. Over 70 million in urban India live in informal settlements where they end up sharing resources and have community access to sanitation and drinking water facilities. There are 4 million homeless in urban India who are at greater risk of the infection due to their living condition. For all of these marginalized and vulnerable communities having access to isolation, and protective measures like sanitizers, gloves, masks, soap, and most importantly water is a luxury.

Dry Ration: 

35,000 families have been supported with dry food ration in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh.

Dry ration is distributed among the poorest households — those who rely on daily wages and do not have any money or food since the lockdown. These include brick kiln workers, rickshaw pullers, daily earners in Prayagraj district.

These kits include rice, flour, pulses, salt, some spices such as haldi & chilli powder, edible oil, sugar, vegetables. The kit serves a family of five for two meals a day for a period of 15 days.

Cooked Meals: 

2,000 packets of ready to eat cooked meals have been distributed in Prayagraj district, Uttar Pradesh, which caters to the needs of the migrant workers returning home on cycles, foot, in trucks, trailers and buses, Homeless roadside people. In multiple location like- Prayagraj station, Leader Road, Kareli, Khuldabad, Nakhas kohna, Samdabad, Attarsuiya, Kala Danda, Dariyabad, Atala, Mansoorpark, Roshan Bagh, Dr Kadju Road, Subzi Mandi, Chowk, Ghantaghar in Prayagraj district of Uttar Pradesh.

Safety Kits: 

More than 5,000 safety kits (masks, gloves, sanitizers) have been distributed in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh to poor people, rickshaw pullers, daily wagers, street people etc.

Mass Awareness: 

Over thousands of people have been reached through awareness generation messages on COVID-19 by using various innovative communication mediums such as IPC, during raw ration kits, prepared meal and safety kits distribution etc.