Delhi government scales up food relief as crisis grows

NEW DELHI: Thirty-year-old Chandni collected her food packet from a government school in Neb Sarai, south Delhi, on Saturday afternoon and burst into tears. The food was hardly enough for her and her three teenage children. Her husband left her six months back and she doesn’t have cooking gas or any provisions at home. Many migrant labourers like her said they could die of hunger before the novel coronavirus got them.
A Delhi government facility working from the Radha Soami Satsang at Bhati mines has been preparing food packets for 30,000 people and distributing at 500 locations in the city.Food is being cooked in many other areas in southwest Delhi for distribution.
When Chandni, who belongs to Samastipur in Bihar, opened her packet, she found three puris and aloo sabzi. “We have been waiting since the morning for this. How can four people survive on three puris?” she asked. She used to work as a labourer but now there is no work.
“They should see the number of people residing in each house and distribute the food accordingly. We do not have provisions and only people who have ration cards are able to get some. All of us are daily wage labourers or do menial jobs,” said Kiran Chauhan of the same village.
Delhi government has mounted a Herculean effort to ensure that poor people don’t go hungry but the scale of the humanitarian crisis is so large that things are taking time to settle down. Sonalika Jiwani, SDM, Mehrauli, said they were taking all measures to ensure that food reached every household and scaling up wherever they see an increase in demand.
“Most of us are daily wage labourers who can neither go to work, nor return to our villages,” said Renu Gupta, collecting her share. “We live in a joint family and not everyone can come to collect but I am glad we have got something to eat.”
Though civil defence volunteers and officials made sure they sanitised the hands of people and asked them to stand apart on marked lines, as soon as the people walked out, they began huddling together for comfort.
Indu Prakash Singh, a member of the advisory panel on the food relief work, said the government has decided to attach one or two members of civil society or NGOs with each DM to attend to complaints. “A big problem is of the poor being unable to reach the centres because of the police coming in the way. We have written to the police commissioner,” he added.
Kamlesh Agarwal and his wife had come to the capital in the first week of March from Panna district in Madhya Pradesh and couldn’t even settle down before the crisis hit them. “Back home, our daughter is down with fever for the last couple of days and I just wish to return. My parents are too old to take care of her.” said Kamlesh as he sobbed, clutching a food packet at Neb Sarai.
In other areas like north and southwest Delhi, the tie-up with agencies that provide midday meals has turned out to be a boon. In north Delhi, food packets were distributed from 34 schools catering to about 17,000 people. However, with the demand increasing, 10 more schools have been added to the list. Mobile vans are, meanwhile, distributing food to people who are squatting at Singhu Border, hoping to return home.
Village pradhans and local political functionaries have been roped in in south-west Delhi to gauge demand and needs of people. Soumya Sharma, SDM, Najafgarh, said: “We provided food to around 11,000 people and are also in touch with others to ensure no one is hungry. We are also changing the menu every day.”
With 350 Delhi government schools being designated as meal distribution centres, teachers have been roped in for supervising the meals. This is under the overall supervision of the district magistrate.