Amina Begum, a resident of Thubarahalli labour camp in the south-east periphery of the city, is worried about how she will feed her five children — all aged below 15 — in the coming days. The rations, an NGO provided at the start of the lockdown, are fast running out. “I have less than a kilo of rice and a few handfuls of dal left. If we do not get a refill in the next few days, the situation looks grim,” she told The Hindu .
The dry ration kits distributed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and other organisations in the last week of March and first week of April were meant to sustain a family for three weeks, in some cases even less. But with the extension of the lockdown, people from lower income groups, who are dependent on these kits, are worried about whether they will get refills.
Cooked meals
What seems to have helped them stave off hunger and stretch their dry rations is the cooked meals being served by several NGOs and through the Hunger Helpline. “We are served only one meal a day, not even two. Many times, the rice being served is not even cooked properly. With rations running out how can we survive on just one meal a day?” said Babu Saab, a resident of one of the labour camps at Bellandur.
Most of the civil society organisations admit that they are stretched for resources. However, a few of them have begun second round of distribution of rations.
“Citizen initiatives — With Bengaluru, Hasiru Dala and Mercy Mission — together have recorded a demand for 50,000 families and nearly 36,000 individuals who are living alone across the city,” said Nalini Sekhar of Hasiru Dala, and added that this was only a fraction of the real demand on ground. “Azim Premji Philanthropic Initiatives has funded us and now we have resources to deliver ration kits to 35,000 families, which we started on Saturday,” she said.
However, those working in the space since the lockdown was imposed argue that the government and other civic agencies step up to distribute rations to those in need. “When the first round the lockdown was announced and there was a crisis of hunger, the entire society stepped up. It has been a month since then. Civil society initiatives working on the ground have data of the demand. But the BBMP has to date made no efforts to collate this data and distribute relief in an organised way. Even after a month since the lockdown began, the civic body doesn’t have adequate data,” alleged Madhu Bushan, an activist working for relief with the urban poor.
58,000 ration kits
The BBMP is yet to begin distribution of dry rations for the second round. Senior civic officials said they were collating data of the demand and geospatially mapping it. BBMP Commissioner B.H. Anil Kumar said the civic body had finalised orders for 58,000 ration kits for migrant labourers and another 1.5 lakh ration kits for the urban poor in the city. “We will begin the second round of distribution very soon,” he said.
What has also affected the poor is that even those who have collected ration through the public distribution system have only got rice and no dal , despite an order to the contrary by the Union government. The State government has announced that dal will be issued through PDS in May.
