With Maharashtra among the three worst drought-affected states, World Vision India, a child-focused relief and development NGO, on Saturday said it has begun distributing food kits, providing livelihood support activities, fodder and veterinary camps for cattle in severely-affected areas.
“World Vision India programmes in affected areas are already in touch with the district and block administration and local NGOs. Depending on the context, we will provide immediate relief like water, fodder and even food rations if required to the worst-affected communities,” Kunal Kumar Shah, director, Disaster Management at World Vision India said in a statement.
Mr Shah said the NGO is currently doing assessments with its partners in several locations in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. “To address this situation, there has to be collaborative effort by various government departments, humanitarian agencies, donors and the people themselves through long-term initiatives. These would mitigate future possibilities of drought apart from immediate drought relief in terms of government grants and schemes,” he said.
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World Vision India had intervened in Vidarbha’s Yavatmal district where suicides by cotton farmers trapped in an agrarian crisis had peaked in 2008. This year, 1,800 villages in the district have been declared drought-affected. The NGO plans to scale up its successful interventions in Yavatmal to tackle the drought this year. In 2008, the organisation had initiated watershed programmes, advance farming techniques and mixed cropping patterns which helped groundwater recharge and ensured adequate water for irrigation and livestock. Mr Shah said the organisation intends to cover over 1.83 lakh households in 15 severely affected locations in all three states.
The writer is an intern with The Hindu