CJP’s campaign in Assam has taken a new colour given the prevailing lockdown situation in the entire country. Labourers, daily wage earners, sex workers, people from low in come families in containment zones and migrant workers are few sections of the society which have benefitted from the relentless efforts of the CJP team in Mumbai to provide them with ration, enough to sustain themselves. Similarly, CJP’s team in Assam which was previously engaged in NRC related assistance and aid to the families affected due to the NRC process, have now switched to providing relief to those in need.
The nationwide lockdown has adversely impacted the livelihood of daily-wage earners and people in low-income jobs. Families of thela-wallas, taxi and auto rickshaw drivers, vegetable vendors, carpenters, scrap purchasers, delivery boys, waiters, domestic helps, people with HIV/AIDS, transgender persons, sex workers, orphans and destitute people need our urgent help to tide over the COVID crisis. CJP has partnered with several like-minded organisations to provide ration and essential supplies to over 5,000 such families across the Mumbai Metropolitan region. We urge you to donate generously so that nobody goes to bed hungry.
What is different about this campaign is that the team’s efforts are not limited to providing relief and aid to NRC affected families, which also happen to belong to low income groups, but also all other such people in need. This is being done by engaging the community in the work and hence is enabling them to reach more people and more remote areas. Assam’s terrain has proved a challenge even when CJP’s NRC campaign was in progress, for the District Volunteer motivators (DVMs) who were going to far flung remote areas of Assam to provide aid and support. In the current campaign of “CJP against hunger” as well the same kind of dedication is seen in the DVMs reaching the usually inaccessible areas of Assam to provide relief material.
The Team and its efforts
The DVMs of Chirang District, Nanda Ghosh and Pranoy Tarafdar have worked in Chirang District and provided ration to more than 200 people. The relief material includes rice, mustard oil, lentils, salt, onion, soya beans, potatoes. These ration packets are sufficient for sustenance for a week.
In Morigaon District, Faruk Ahmed has provided relief material to close to 100 families in Bangalbori village which includes a family of a Tablighi Jamaat attendee who has been taken away to a separate quarantine facility. This family was especially facing hardship as they are isolated in their home as per police instructions and hence were finding it difficult to feed themselves. Help is also reaching Kuiadol and Guripathar gaon of Morigaon district.
In Chirang district, our DVM Abul Kalam Azad has been providing necessary relief material in the areas of Hatipota, Satipur, Banduguri, Hasraubari, Barigara, Bilashpur, Padmapur.
In Goalpara district, our DVMs Zesmin Sultana along with Rosminara Begum distributed ration to some families of Kharijamanikpur village.
In Chirang, Bongaigaon and some parts of Kokrajhar, relief is reaching mainly to widows, orphans, families of detainees and low-income families as well. Our DVM, Mr. Nanda Ghosh reports that aid has reached 89 widows in Chirang, Bongaigaon and some parts of Kokrajhar collectively. Additionally, 5 families of detainees in Bijni, 17 children in an orphanage in Bongaigaon and two families of daily wage earners have received ration.
In Kawatika, Chirang District, CJP has with the help of Kawatika Yuva Samaj and some members of the community have distributed relief material in the form of ration to 240 families until now.
In Darrang district, our DVM Joynal Abedin managed to provide ration to some low income families in Dhalpur and Kirakara village.
CJP’s Assam team is providing these relief materials to low income families with no current source of income (due to the lockdown), to families who are not receiving relief from the government for any reason, families with no ration card or families who are unable to avail the benefits from their ration cards for any reason. The team is also reaching out to families of those person who are currently languishing in Assam’s detention centres as the ration cards of these families have been suspended due to even member’s exclusion from the NRC list.
Going out of the way
Apart from this, members of Borbari Yuva Samaj were also mobilised in order to provide relief to around 200 people in Morigaon which included families living in quarantine due to COVID19 suspicion. Faruk Ahmed has also helped families in quarantine in Bongalbari village in Morigaon, who do not have a tap, by providing them with around 250 litres of water from nearby village as also has provided 15 days of ration to these quarantined families.
Many DVMs in Assam are contributing even monetarily to the cause to ensure that there is no delay in delivering relief materials to the needy in these times.
Additionally, Mr. Zamser Ali, the state coordinator for CJP, along with Ms. Kalyanee Boruah are constantly reaching out to the state administration to ensure the distressed families get relief material from the government. They were successful in one such attempt when on April 5, it came to their notice that in Jalukbari area, many labourers had not been receiving food for 2 days. They approached the district administration and due to this intervention, about 70 families have received about 750 kgs of ration from the state government.
In this manner, due to CJP Assam team’s collective effort of mobilising the community and social groups relief has reached the remotest areas, helping the destitute, orphans, families in quarantine, as well as families of detainees and other low-income families. CJP endeavours to continue its widespread efforts in the state of Assam through its dedicated team.
Related:
CJP against Hunger: Rations and essentials provided to migrant workers
CJP against Hunger: Almost 1,500 families served in one day!
CJP against Hunger: Essentials supplied to needy families from the North East