Ghumnabharu village at the Indo-Nepal border is located around 80 km away from the Baharaich district headquarters and around 20 km from the Mihimpurwa Block office in Uttar Pradesh is surrounded by the Kartania Wildlife Sanctuary. The resident communities lack basic amenities like proper Education, Health, Transportation and Electricity. The only support for a living is partial farming, in which many families do not even have land.

In such a situation, going out of the village to work in towns as labour is the only means of livelihood. Like other places, this area had also seen the impact of Covid-19 Pandemic where many youth working in far places from their homes lost their Jobs and were forced to come back which made their conditions more pathetic as well as the lives of women and children and elderly people. 

Another big challenge faced by the women in the village is of alcoholism due to the porous Indo-Nepal border where the country liquor is easily sold to the men and youths. Beside Covid-19, alcoholism had also affected the lives of people especially women of the family. Due to daily liquor consumption, many families have lost their breadwinners, women became widows, children are orphan, and many elders lost their children.

Insight of all these problems the Caritas India Swaraksha, Anti-Human Trafficking Program Implemented at Nepal border villages by DSWS Partner of Caritas India conducted awareness and sensitization sessions focusing on Children’s education, Youth Skill Trainings and women are Supported through Livelihood Program and are linked to several Govt. Schemes. The Primary beneficiary of the Govt. Schemes are Women, Youth and Children and vulnerable section of the community like Widows, Single Parents Children, PWDs and CWDs and Old age peoples.

Seeing the vulnerability amidst Covid-19, the need of inter-face meeting and awareness with the government departments was felt by the program coordinator so more and more people should get benefits from the related schemes like Kanya Sumangala Yojana, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Smart Labor Card Scheme, Old Age Pension, Disabled Pension, PWDs Pension and other Govt. Schemes. The information about Social welfare sponsorship schemes etc. was given by the concerned authorities present in the meeting as well as various helpline numbers 112, 1090, 181, 1098, 108, 102, 1903 etc. were shared and awareness was created on the issues like women safety and domestic violence. 

During the meeting, it was observed that many children in the community want to study but due to poverty and lack of transportation facilities they are unable to pursue their education and many mothers who are widows who have no means of livelihood, they are also not getting the widow pension by the government. Many senior citizens are not accessing the Old-age Pensions, it has come to the fore now that all of them have to be added to the respective schemes after coordination by the Partners team members who will do the process once the beneficiary will be identified. During the Interface meeting around 150 beneficiaries were identified and enrolled for different Govt. Schemes and around 27 Girls received the Completion certificate of Stitching Training from DSWS.

This Interface meeting was organized to make the community and the stakeholders aware and sensitize on the entitlements and benefits of the vulnerable section so that at this crucial time of pandemic people can live the life. Though, DSWS team under Swaraksha AHT Program is personally visiting the vulnerable families to provide support through linkages with Govt. Schemes but this interface have made the people come out of their houses and become vocal in front of the Govt. Authorities by sharing their challenges and Problems.

The Meeting was attended by the District Probationary officer, Women Welfare Officer, Child Development Project Officer, One Stop Centre in charge and Panchayat Head who linked the participants to several Govt. Schemes. This Kind of Interface meetings will be called often by the Caritas India Partners not only to enrol the vulnerable families to different Govt. Schemes but also it will be a means to empower them so that they could be vocal and raise their voice against the Gaps and Challenges.