Sushil Kumar from Bihar now sells vegetables to fulfil his daily needs. Before the lockdown, he used to work as a guard in one of the factories in Chandigarh but after his return, he opted for this livelihood option to become self-reliant under the Saksham programme.

Shital Prakash, a returned migrant also started vending vegetables with the support of Saksham programme. He used to work in Hyderabad as labour but after returning home, he was clueless as to how to sustain life. He expressed his intentions to start some economic activity locally with the support of the Farmers group and Saksham programme. Saksham programme supported him to start to sell vegetables in the local market and Chausa Gola Bazar and Sarenja Bazar.

Saksham, a food and nutritional security programme of Caritas India works with the farmers who are caught in fragile and vulnerable ecosystems and remote areas. During the lockdown, the project realigned its objective and supported the marginalised and vulnerable migrant communities to earn their livelihood and become self-reliant.

Amid lockdown, several migrant workers started selling vegetables and fast food in Bihar for living. The virus has exposed the hidden reality of the migrant situation in our country. The migrant workers who power the country’s growth were left unattended during this unprecedented time.

To control the pandemic, the government had initiated lockdowns to curb the spread of the virus. These series of lockdowns have a serious economic fall in all sectors, and we had experienced a chain of reverse migration majorly of people who lost their jobs/ livelihood because of the economic slowdown.

The impact of reverse migration can be especially harsh for the landless people who have no other option to earn their livelihood. During the early phase of lockdown, the Saksham Project has supported  80 Farmers to promote livelihood through on-farm activities. As a next phase, the programme decided to support the marginalised population with non-farm Initiatives. Localized initiatives were taken to make migrants self-resilient by promoting small economic activities among in the districts.

To augment the individual income as well as making them self-reliant, Saksham programme provided handholding support and start-up input to 95 individuals with the support of BUXAR Diocesan Partner, Bihar. These 95 individuals were selected through People Led Development approach, assessment through small group meetings, focus group discussion, reviewing data and interview of Panchayat and villagers. The assessment was conducted with a clear focus to identify the marginalised population with the support of the community. To finalise the beneficiary list, it was shared with the community for validation. The Group formed a list based on the core interest area of the individuals and further orientation was given with Start-up support of Rs. 5000/-. The entire process was conducted with the help of existing groups of Key persons of the villages/ community.