It was in November 2019 that Preeti Choudhury, a lawyer by profession, founded the Annant Unnati Foundation, along with Vikas Pal and Unnati Choudhary, in the National Capital Region of Ghaziabad. The aim was to impart education to underprivileged children living in the slums.
However, after the coronavirus started spreading its tentacles in the country, on March 24, a three-week nationwide lockdown was announced to prevent the spread of the virus in the country. However, the lockdown has had an adverse impact on the daily wagers and migrant workers.
The kids at the NGO were no exception. As soon as the lockdown was imposed, the children and their families started calling the volunteers working with the NGO saying they didn’t have food or ration or gas. It was then that the NGO decided to move beyond its mission of imparting education and started providing meals to these families.
The NGO had, through crowdfunding, planned to provide one meal to these children even before the pandemic hit. After the lockdown, this funding was used to provide dry ration to these families.
That was the first step. The NGO managed to get some generous donations and in a short span of time it distributed dry ration to 7,000 people … still counting.
Pooja Adlakha, who is associated with the NGO, said: “Covid-19 was a big blow to these children and their families as it shut down their access to basic needs. We started getting distress calls. After the lockdown, the initial challenge for us was to make them understand the importance of staying indoors. But when they started calling us saying they didn’t have enough food, we had to step up.”
She added: “We shifted our focus from teaching to providing ration to those living in slum areas nearby. So far, we have provided both, dry ration, and cooked meals. We provided ready-to-eat meals to the panic-stricken migrants who had started moving out of the city. Currently, we are procuring dry ration for about 1,000 homes that are deprived of food. As the government has turned a blind eye towards these factors, NGOs, like ours, have to step in.”
There were challenges. For instance, there were delays in procuring ration from shops and stores in bulk as people — those who could afford buying food — had started hoarding stuff at home. “We had to get in touch with mandis to get dray ration in bulk,” said Pooja.
The second big challenge was how to distribute food.
“The Railway Protection Force (RPF) and the local police station in-charge at Indirapuram Ghaziabad helped us in distributing food. Initially, people would gather in large numbers upon seeing us. So, we had to tell them the importance of social distancing. We told them about the pandemic and why should they be washing their hands again and again. Associating with the RPF and the police helped as they would inform us about other families in the vicinity who needed help,” said Pooja.
Small initiatives often bring about big changes. The Annant Unnati Foundation, which started with just 25 children, today has two centres, 275 kids and 11 volunteers. And now they are successfully filling the gaps that the government hasn’t been able to … so far.
As per the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) Global Social Mobility Report published earlier this year, India’s social inequality keeps a significant section of the population poor forever despite the country’s impressive economic growth. Also, an assessment released in January 2020 by government think-tank NITI Aayog reports that going by the states’ progress on poverty reduction, India is far behind its ‘zero poverty by 2030’ target.
“As they say, every drop in the ocean counts and that’s why all the foundations and organisations working towards educating the poor in our country would, in one way or the other, also help in bringing poverty level down. Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, many heroes have emerged who have been selfless working towards helping the underprivileged. I think I am honoured to be a part of this journey,” said Pooja.
Pooja Adlakha is associated with the Annant Unnati Foundation.
