“Each day was a nightmare for me after my return to the village with the lost job due to pandemic. The worries of livelihood and sustaining family disturbed me each day,” said Dileep, one of the migrants from Jagdalpur, Chhattisgarh.

This is the story of many of the people living in rural areas especially in tribal geography as the second wave of Covid-19 grabbed the country during March – June 2021, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand were among the states which were affected seriously. Chhattisgarh was one of five states contributing to 62 percentage of the total active cases in the country. The tribal-dominated rural districts of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand which had been reporting fewer cases than urbanised places suddenly witnessed a sharp increase in cases. Providing routine healthcare services in tribal districts have always been a challenge, which has made the spread alarming. Unlike the first wave of Covid spread, the second wave hit the rural villages rapidly. Due to the alarming spread in both these states, many districts in the state began imposing strict restrictions on the movement of people from March onwards. However, this didn’t help in decreasing the number of cases. Chhattisgarh has faced most Covid deaths during April and the cases increased rapidly. Both the states were under lockdown for almost 2 months. The whole situation has affected the lives of rural people in the state financially and mentally.

Agricultural communities, Informal migrant workers, People living with disabilities, widows, orphans, and daily wage labour communities have struggled to get food especially those who are stranded in the areas inaccessible having not enough food. Due to lock down their access to food availability has compromised as they have lost their source of daily income, secondly, the prices of essential food items like rice, dal, edible oil, potatoes, chillies, etc., have almost doubled (beyond the purchasing capacity of this group of people).

Considering the plight of the communities, Caritas Australia raised an emergency appeal to its citizens to mobilise funds to support the Covid-19 affected people in India. The Citizens of Australia responded to the appeal and donated whole-heartedly to support the vulnerable communities in India impacted by the pandemic.

Caritas India with the funding support from Caritas Australia supported the most vulnerable families residing in the Gram Nirman project villages. Emphasis was given to the most vulnerable group such as migrants, people living with disabilities, widows, orphans, and daily wage earners. In consultation with existing Community Based Organisations, 2476 most susceptible families were identified and directly supported with dry ration kits covering 11 intervention districts from both Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. Each dry ration kit included 20kg rice, 5kg wheat flour, edible oil, lentil, and salt which was sufficient for approximately 20 days for an average family size of 5 people.

On receiving the food kit, Ms Kavita, one of the People Living with Disabilities from Chhattisgarh shared, “It has become difficult for people like us (PLWD) who depend on our families. I was so disappointed and thinking that I am not able to contribute anything to my family in this pandemic time but after receiving a food kit from Gram Nirman, I feel relief as this support reduces the load from my family at least for a month.”

Moreover, 137 project villages of Gram Nirman [73 Chhattisgarh & 64 Jharkhand] was supported with a community health kit. The kit included (oximeter, thermometer, reusable face masks, hand sanitisers and soaps] was handed over to front line workers (ASHA & Anganwadi workers) in each village in the presence of community people with the orientation of its usage.