Akshaya Patra Foundation Offers Meals To Migrant Labourers, Daily Wage Earners Amid Coronavirus Lockdown Crisis

"We haven't eaten for two days. We are scared of this disease (novel coronavirus) but I think hunger will kill us. We will stay hungry, but how can we watch our children starve?", said Rekha Devi as she walked with her husband and two young children down a highway leading out of Delhi, heading to see her family some 370 kilometers (270 miles) away. Rekha Devi echoes the plight of thousands and lakhs of daily wage earners and labourers who have been on hand to mouth existence, but now with the lockdown, they are not only out of jobs but don't have a roof over their head nor enough money to feed themselves.

To ensure no one sleeps on an empty stomach or stays hungry during the pandemic, various state governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and individuals have come forward to provide food. For instance, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) under the Delhi government has started a facility for providing lunch and dinner to all in need through its night shelters across the city.

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Similarly, on March 27 the Akshaya Patra Foundation, which has been working closely with the government in implementing its nutrition welfare programme – mid-day meal for nearly two decades now, initiated ‘relief feeding'. As part of this initiative, the foundation is running two kinds of programmes – distribution of cooked meals and distribution of food relief kits. Elaborating on the distribution of cooked meals, Chanchalapathi Dasa, Vice Chairman of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said,

We closely work with the local government and local administration and there are many places where people are stranded, they don't have any facility to cook and immediately need food. In such places, we try to deliver cooked meals, sometimes twice a day and sometimes thrice. For instance, in Delhi, Noida and a few labour camps in Gurgaon, we are feeding around 50,000 meals a day which is partly distributed as lunch and partly as dinner. Along with this, we are providing cooked meals in Jaipur, Ajmer, Hyderabad, Pune and Ahemdabad as well.

Apart from this, in some parts of the country, the team is distributing food relief kits containing essential grocery items like flour, rice, cooking oil, spices, and vegetables with longer shelf life like potato, among others. Each of these food kits is capable of serving an adult two meals a day for 21 days.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation team preparing grocery kits to be distributed among migrant labourers and daily wage earners

A big carton box has essential grocery items needed for an adult to have lunch and dinner. It comprises fifteen items and the list of items varies in different parts of the country. For instance, in South India we give rice whereas, in North India, we offer flour. Depending on the local requirement we have adjusted the list and ensured that the kit has ginger, lemon, turmeric – some of the prerequisites to maintain a healthy immune system of an individual. Each kit costs Rs. 750, Mr Dasa informed NDTV.

As part of ‘relief feeding', the team has distributed 5,000 food kits and aims to deliver 2.5 lakh grocery kits. To support the initiative, on Tuesday (March 31), Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy and his wife Sudha Murthy along with their family committed to offer Rs. 10 crores from their personal funds. The donation will enable The Akshaya Patra Foundation to distribute 1.33 lakh food relief kits which will serve nearly 56 lakh (55,86,000) meals. These kits will be distributed in various locations such as Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, Mathura and Hyderabad.

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Though the foundation has received donation to provide food to lakhs of individuals, the major challenge is getting the workforce. Talking about the same, Mr Dasa said,

Schools were closed before the national lockdown and we had sent away our workmen. A large number of our workforce comes from a small town and villages and most of them had returned to their home. Getting them back to work, either for cooking the meal or packing the grocery kits has been a herculean task. They have been very fearful of coming out of their home. Sometimes employees want to come but their family stops them, they call us and question for calling them in the time of the epidemic.

Though some individuals did manage to come back but implementing a scheme at a large scale requires a big workforce. For which the foundation has resorted to volunteers and government staff. For instance, in Bengaluru, the team is working closely with the police department and the city corporation - Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).

Police officials helping The Akshaya Patra Foundation in distributing grocery kits to migrant labourers

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They have a mapping of the entire requirement in the state – where there are stranded migrant labourers, where there are daily wage earners who have lost their job and where they need food. So, they help in distributing the kits and cooked meals, said Mr Dasa.

For instance, the government of Karnataka has decided to provide dry ration in a packed form to the migrant labourers who have lost their livelihood and are stuck in the city until lockdown. To implement the same, BBMP has divided the city into eight zones and has prepared a list of the requirement. Elaborating on the same, Randeep D, Special Commissioner, Solid Waste Management at BBMP, said,

I am heading the Mahadevpura Zone where we have been providing cooked meals to over 14,000 thousand individuals, thrice a day - breakfast, lunch and dinner, for four days now. These cooked meals come from Indira canteen, local arrangements done by zones themselves and from private food joints like Barbeque Nation. Meanwhile, BBMP had placed an order with The Akshaya Patra Foundation for grocery kits for 20,000 people (there was an addition of 6,000 people). Starting April 3, these kits will be picked up from ISKCON kitchen and from tomorrow we will initiate the distribution process. Once dry ration reaches everyone, we will gradually phase out the supply of cooked meals.

Visited the #ISKCON kitchen to inspect preparation of dry ration packets along with Principal Secretary Kumar Naik today.

These ration packs will be distributed among migrant labour & their families housed in various kalyana mantapas.#BBMP#staysafe#Bengaluru#StayHomepic.twitter.com/otDdn4FGut

— B.H.Anil Kumar,IAS (@BBMPCOMM) April 2, 2020

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This way the team is covering 53 locations in the country. While doing so, the foundation ensures the workforce practices preventive and precautionary measures including social distancing.

We have a regime – every morning the team has to gargle, drink lime juice, in every half an hour they have to take a glass of warm water. We have a health safety officer only monitoring this. The whole idea is, this pandemic is contained and we as part of relief workers don't add to the problem while we are trying to solve the problem. So we are taking all measures, signed off Mr Dasa.

Sharing his experience of volunteering at Akshay Patra and on ground findings, Sreekar C Reddy, a final year student said,

Right now whosoever has money is sitting inside their home, trying to protect themselves from the coronavirus and it's the poor who are at great risk. They are out of job, don't have food security, some people don't know how and from where their next meal will be. When I along with other volunteers went to various slums to distribute grocery kits, we noticed that they are not following social distancing. Yes, in slums, houses are small and it's tough to maintain a distance but those people lack awareness and education. While some are using masks, others are resorting to handkerchiefs. We have to support them.

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