By the poor, for the poor

The announcement of a nationwide lockdown on March 24th left daily-wage laborers in Tikiapara, Howrah unemployed overnight and bereft of any facilities. With no ration in any of their homes, people have been suffering from acute hunger.

Realising that outside help might take some time to come—and maybe not come at all—community members have started contributing from their own meagre pockets. Many of them have contributed between INR 50-600 to ensure that those with no ration are provided for.

While the community has contributed 75 percent of the funds required to support its 3.5 lakh members, we at Samaritan Help Mission have drawn the remaining 25 percent from our own reserves, so that there is money to provide one month’s rations for the daily-wage earners, and financial support to the women daily-wage earners.

The other big problem, which no one outside the community has realised, is that many of the elderly people are suffering from high blood pressure and other chronic ailments, and they have not been able to get medicines due to the lockdown. The focus nationwide has been on food, but medicines—especially for the elderly who are more vulnerable to the virus—are just as critical. As the lockdown continues, the community will need the support of external funders to access food and medicine in the coming weeks.

Mamoon Akhtar is the founder of Samaritan Help Mission, a nonprofit based in Howrah, West Bengal.