Volunteer’s Name: Nabiya Ethiraj
Report Date: 18th July 2021
Location of Work: Dharavi, Mumbai
State: Maharashtra
Team Members involved: Vanitha and Nabiya
Total Beneficiaries Families: 100
Total Beneficiaries People: 400
Beneficiaries Details: The beneficiaries are the migrant daily labors who have lost their livelihood due to this pandemic lockdown. They live in Slum where they don’t have proper basic needs. 95% of this population use the public toilet… “There is an estimated one toilet for every 1,440 people. In the rainy season, streets, lacking drainage, become channels for filthy water carrying human excrement, reported in The Times of India (2006). Hence, they face lots of issues related to physical, emotional, mental and sexual as well.
Work details: Dharavi, is the largest slum in India where most of the residents are migrants from different parts of the country. The main reason for the migration is “Looking for livelihood opportunities”. Most of the residents of daily wage labors. The corona lockdown hit them badly, they find it very difficult to get even a daily meal. Vanitha Elangovan is one of them, and working with women for their empowerment. Vanitha helped us to get a list of residents who come under below poverty line. Though there are lots of people who need help, we have identified 100 families who have got affected the most in the first batch, out of which 30% of people have different forms of disabilities and chronic illnesses.
Nagaloka and Manuski’s Relief work initiative gave me the confidence to help these people. The initiative has addressed the humanitarian crises at the right time. Food comes under fundamental needs, so providing ration kits for needy people has become the first priority for us.
We have gone to these households and understood the immediate requirements. and then the list has been prepared and sent to Nagaloka and Manuski relief work initiative. After their approval, we have the families give us some time to make the arrangements. They were literally waiting for the rations to come to their households to have food at least not getting worried for 2 weeks.
The shop owner who is also from the same community has helped with the quality rations as he knows the problems faced by people. The rations have been packed nicely as they should not get wet by the heavy rain in Mumbai. A vehicle owner helped us to load the rations free of cost. We went street by street to provide the rations as we don’t have a common space for the community there.
The final distribution has had happened on 18th July 2021.
Remarks:
The relief work helped more than 400 people in the Dharavi slum. The worry to get food for two weeks has been resolved now.
“My husband has lost his job, and I have two children. The responsibility of feeding them has fallen on my shoulder. I am the saddest person on the planet I think. Because I never slept peacefully for the past 1.5 years now. I request neighbors to help us to get some rations and I will go for housekeeping work to earn to at least feed them. My husband is an alcoholic and very abusive, so sometimes, I am compelled to give money to drink also. This ration kit will save our lives for some days. We will relax a bit and start the hunt again. Thanks to the team for helping me to sleep properly.” – a 45 years Dharavi Resident shared her story.
As we have mentioned 30% of the families who have received the ration have a history of some form of disabilities and chronic illnesses, so the ration kits helped them have food peacefully.
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