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ASTHA week II COVID response

Ensuring Food Security to Families in Distress

30th March, Monday to 5th April, Sunday

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ASTHA week II COVID response

Introduction

ASTHA is a cross disability organization, working in urban slums of Delhi and

neighboring states since more than 27 years now. Due to the lockdown it had

shut its physical operations two weeks back but continued to work through

different strategies. It is working intensively in its geographical areas of

Tughlakabad, Govindpuri, Batla House and Okhla Industrial areas. In addition, the

organization has extended its arms to serve as many families and persons possible

in this humanitarian crisis. This report presents work done by the organization in

the Week II of the lockdown.

Week II of the lockdown has seen many more announcements by the government

on enhancing food security through many more locations in the city as well as

extending dry ration supply to those without ration cards. However, on the

ground we find that it takes time for people to apply on portals to get food and

many cannot wait.

The focus has been on getting dry rations to families in distress and families and

people who have reached out to us or been referred to us by other groups. The

Northeast of Delhi where many families continue to be in distress because of the

violence and then the lockdown has been a focus area for us in terms of reaching

More than 150 families near India

Gate slums

20 families in Noor Nagar and Batla

House

More than 20 families in Okhla Industrial area

More than 10 families in

Tughlakabad and Govindpuri slums

10 families in Khirki and Badarpur

slums

4 families in riots affected NorthEast

Delhi

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out. While our first focus is always to activate government systems, in times of

humanitarian crisis, the aim is to ally distress rather than wait for the

government.

Working as a group, the Program Managers, Community staff and Social workers

of the organization identified over fifty families with children and persons with

disabilities who needed immediate support. Spread across the areas of Okhla

Tughlaqabad, Batla House, Giri Nagar (Kalkaji) etc. the earning members of these

families were largely daily wage earners, rickshaw pullers, tailors, daily labourer’s

and some with no current employment. With an average of 5 persons, no ration

card or disability certificates through which they could become eligible for

entitlements, these are high risk families.

Some of the families are single parent families and some have more than one

child or person with disabilities. As rations with small community vendors dried

up, ASTHA team negotiated and worked with different groups on the ground, the

MLAs office and the families to ensure that ration reached them. Organizations,

groups of concerned citizens, individual volunteers, small vendors, donors and

many others have been instrumental in facilitating this.

Even though the government of Delhi has opened many schools now giving out

cooked meals, Dimpy and Bani’s mother is finding it very hard to leave her two

daughters, both with severe disabilities to go and get food. Feeding both the

daughters takes time and it is not possible for her to carry two children to the

nearby school for a hot cooked meal. Post Covid 19 lockdown, the father lost his

job and the family was staring at an economic crisis. It is important that such

families are prioritized and food reaches them. Members of ASTHA were able to

provide dry rations for a month to the family.

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ASTHA’s Danish (left) and Saqib (right) delivering dry ration to families in need in Okhla Industrial Area

Nawazish is an 8 year boy who lives in a rented room in Batla House. There are 6

members in the family. The father used to work as a laborer on daily wages and

mother as a maid in nearby homes. Post Covid – 19 lockdown, both were left

jobless. They have been living in Delhi from last 6-7 years but do not have

documents of Delhi, because they belong to Bihar and all the documents have the

address of Bihar. They do not have ration card or any kind of savings which will

work till the lock down ends. Nawazish has a disability known as Cerebral Palsy

but cannot get any entitlements because of a lack of documents. It was important

to provide immediate relief of dry rations to the family.

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Reaching Out to Persons with Disabilities in other Parts of the City

A group of people with mobility impairments because of Polio reached out to

ASTHA asking for dry rations. Living on the streets near Mazar Park, near India

gate, 25 families with disabled members and around 100-150 more families said

that while everyone else in their near vicinity has left for their homes, this group

was unable to move.

ASTHA chose to have a multipronged approach and reached out to the

government, local organizations and leaders. ASTHA directly provided rations to

around 25 families and facilitated rations, soaps etc. to another 100 odd families

through networking with government and NGOs. Meanwhile members of ASTHA

will continue to be in touch with them for any other need.

NGO partners delivering dry rations (provided by ASTHA) to persons with disabilities near Mazar Park, India gate

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Another locality that ASTHA

has begun to serve is Khirki

Village in Delhi. It is now

home to around 2000 migrant

workers, living in cramped

spaces with no money and

food. ASTHA has started to

support families of children

and persons with disabilities

in this area.

ASTHA’s team member Arham providing ration to a family with a person with disabilities in Khirki

Energizing Government Systems

Even though the government announced that people without ration cards would

be able to get ration from the shops the process for registering for this was online

and very cumbersome. After some strong advocacy, the government clarified

that e coupons would be available for such families and all they needed was an

Aadhar card. ASTHA has started the process of registering each family on the

government portal and have submitted nearly 18-20 of such after constant trying.

Many government departments such as the ICDS did try to provide nutrition to

young children but failed to reach to children with disabilities. ASTHA is constantly

advocating with the Anganwadi system to ensure that food reaches the very

young child with disabilities and their families

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Work with children and families

Inaya is a bright 6 year old girl with multiple disabilities. She lives at Batla House,

Okhla with her parents and maternal

grandparents. When she first came

to ASTHA, Inaya was always lying on

the bed with parents having no

knoweldge on what to do. As she

started coming from the month of

February and from then she has

been guided on working wth her

child. After the lockdown, team kept

in touch wih the family through calls and messages guiding the mother with

various exercise that would bring down the stiffness in her body due to Cerebral

Palsy.

Inaya comes from a high support family and due to the sudden lockdown, her

family faced challenges in availing ration and other basic necessities. ASTHA took

immediate action and formed links with various local NGOs to provide them with

a month’s ration. Along with ration some money was also sent to them to

purchase milk for child for a month.

More than 250 calls across projects to reach

out to 100 children

Facilitated applications for 20 families to apply for ration cards under

Delhi government scheme

Contacted frontline health workers to ensure nutriton

reaches children from Anganwadis

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Some pictures of children learning at home:

Sunny’s mother doing exercises at home

Madiha (2 years) loves to colour

Krish’s mother loves to play with him

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Adarsh is a 12 year child who lives with his family in Majdoor camp, Okhla phase II. He is a child

with Intellectual Disability. The team is doing regular follow up even during this Lockdown, and

his family is ensuring that the ADL work that was done regularly is worked on. Now he indicates

his toileting habits and is able to eat and drink independently.

Harsh’s (2 years) parents doing therapy with him

at their home.

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Nusrat’s seems to be happy studying with her mother, she is 13 years old

As the pandemic progresses, there has been news pouring in from different parts

of the country about children and persons with disabilities being unable to access

their care givers, as well as regular medication for conditions such as epilepsy etc.

Children living with Thalassemia around the country are finding it difficult to

access blood for their blood transfusion. ASTHA organized two virtual meetings

with leading disability organizations from around the country to understand and

document such difficulties that are being faced by children and persons with

disabilities. This documentation will now be shared with states and the Central

government as they plan further strategies to reach out to all.

The organisation has been active, through a disability organsations’ group, for

rehabilitation and relief efforts in Northeast Delhi. This part of the city saw some

worst violence in our history and people have struggled to get back on their feet.

ASTHA has worked with more than 50 people there and is in constant touch now

with them for any needs.

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ASTHA wishes to acknowledge the support of its funders and individual donors

who have contributed generously, enabling us to reach out to many children and

families. It also acknowledges the support of many organizations and individuals

on the ground that has made this possible.

In the coming weeks, the organisation will work towards developing a disaster

response plan for the communities it works in. It will also start mapping of people

who would be vulnerable to Covid 19 – the elderly, children and people with co-

morbidities. The organisation will continue to support people across the city with a

focus on families of persons with disabilities.

We look forward to your support in these times. Your valuable contribution will

enable us to provide these families with dry rations or any other direct assistance

they need in these crucial times.

Link to donate: http://asthaindia.in/donate

http://asthaindia.in/donate

IntroductionReaching Out to Persons with Disabilities in other Parts of the CityEnergizing Government SystemsWork with children and familiesSome pictures of children learning at home: