Convid 19 gave a sudden jolt to everyone. But the biggest shock was for the population without an assured income source. Out of estimated 36 lakh people in working age, only 1/7th have regular and salaried jobs. Rest are self employed, contractual labour and daily wagers. All set to loose their livelihood with the lock down.
IIT Kanpur partnered with Kanpur Parivartan Forum, which was already planning food distribution with Feeding India and FICCI Flo. Immediately, plans were made, with the objective ‘no one goes hungry’. Overnight appeals for donations were sent, localities were identified and procurement/ distribution plans chalked out. The target was to reach out to rickshaw wallas, migrant construction workers and daily wagers. The operations began on 29th March from a centralised location in Kanpur City and everyday 1125 cooked food packets and about 700 family packs (4 kg flour, 2 kg rice, 2 kg dal, 1 kg sugar, tea, oil, spices, and biscuits) were distributed. There were 90 + volunteers, divided into teams for planning, procurement, packaging and distribution.
Till now 8500 family ration packs and 10,000 lunch packets have been distributed in 120+ bastis across 50+ locations in our city, Kanpur. The team also reached out to brick kiln workers of Chaubepur and now planning to cater to Sarsaul brick kiln