Thousands throng govt-run shelters for food
New Delhi, March 28: Everyday, Rampal leaves his rickshaw at the edge of the road near Delhi’s Nigambodh Ghat and joins a queue of hundreds, sometimes thousands, at a government-run shelter for food — gnawing hunger subsuming the coronavirus threat and the need for social distancing.
“Hunger will kill us before any disease does,” said the rickshaw-puller from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh, trapped like many thousands in a city that is not their home and unable to either return or earn money in a 21-day lockdown that has brought life to a grinding halt.
Battling hunger and joblessness, he knows about coronavirus and its perils but it’s an awareness that barely registers in his consciousness as he waits, one among the large crowd of daily wagers, homeless people, and beggars outside the Yamuna Pushta shelter.
According to officials, on Friday, about 5,000 people gathered outside the shelter, the imperative of food overriding the necessity to maintain at least one metre social distancing and the risk of infection.
Most are without masks, leaving them vulnerable to the disease that has affected more than 5,90,000 people worldwide and claimed over 27,000 lives. India has reported more than 820 cases and 19 deaths.
The situation is the same in other shelters. The Delhi government has asked the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) to provide free food to homeless and migrant workers who have been hit hard by the lockdown. The DUSIB runs 234 night shelters in the national capital. According to DUSIB member A.K. Gupta, they can provide food to 18,000 people per day but end up serving double the amount sometimes.
The government spends `20 per person on food, which includes four chapatis or puri, rice, and lentils. Videos of serpentine queues of people, mostly men, sitting close on the floor as they are served their meal, have been doing the rounds of social media.
Rights activists say a large number of people have no idea where to go. After food rights campaigners and workers’ unions complained that the number of night shelters was not enough.
The Delhi government on
Friday said it will provide free lunch and dinner at 325 government-run schools across the national capital. “Delhi has a huge migrant population and a very large number of daily wagers. People working in the unorganised sector often don’t have large savings. They fall into destitution very quickly. Unless there is decentralisation of cooked food, a very large number of people will start reaching these centres,” said food rights campaigner Anjali Bhardwaj.
“In this time of curfew, there’s no public transport and people cannot walk for long to reach the night shelters. So, a nearby anganwadi or school would mean that these people have easy access to food and the place is not overcrowded, thus helping them keep distance between them,” she added.
The Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC), NGOs, and civil society members have been lending a helping hand and providing food and water to hundreds of such homeless people and migrant workers who have no idea where to go. Geetanjali Chopra, the founder and chairperson of NGO “Wishes and Blessings,” which has been providing food to those stranded and stuck, said her organisation collects food grain directly from people from their homes and passes it on to the needy.
Kashi, a beggar, who sits under a foot-over-bridge in Jangpura, said that he is dependent on benevolent passersby whose numbers have reduced due to the lockdown. Left with nothing to eat, he forages for food in a garbage bin behind a toilet. Unaware that food is being provided at night shelters and Delhi government schools, Jagat Pal, a rickshaw-puller, said he has been borrowing money from his friends every day.
Chittu Yadav (55) took the risk of taking out his rickshaw despite the threat of police action to earn a few bucks. “My kids are hungry and I have no money left,” he said. He did not know that the government is providing free food at shelter homes and staterun schools.