Community Engagement @Somasandrapalya, HSR Layout, during COVID-19

Phase 1 (starting 9^th April’20): Relief

It started with us chipping in as last-mile delivery folks. We volunteered to deliver cooked meals on behalf of BBMP - Labour department to the residents of Gurumurthy temple area, near Somasandrapalya, a locality which is just adjacent to HSR layout in Bangalore. Thanks to the fantastic support from the Labour Department, we didn’t skip a single day during those 50 days.                             

                                              

  

Distribution of cooked meals, fruits and ration kits

During this period, we also received calls for help from another community near Somasandrapalya lake and a few families scattered in and around HSR Layout. Regular visits to these communities helped us establish a bond with them. The families were from Bihar, Assam, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Karnataka in a range of professions - plumbers, carpenters, painters, garment factory workers and domestic workers. While our initial focus was on immediate relief and addressing critical needs, it gradually evolved over two months of the lockdown.

We noticed that there were other special needs, such as pregnant women needing more food and medicines, people struggling to pay rent and being asked to vacate, a house in darkness as the family couldn’t pay the bills. Thanks to the support from friends and our families, we were able to get scans and medicines for the pregnant women, help an elderly lady with her medication, and occasionally supplement the meals with fruits, eggs or biscuits. We also reached out to a few apartment blocks in the vicinity to facilitate the release of their domestic worker’s salaries.

Realizing that one cooked meal a day is insufficient for the families, we reached out to an NGO ‘Diya Ghar’ and managed to get 50 ration kits. Subsequently, we reached out to another team ‘COVID relief Bangalore’ through Prathap (also known as Pot-hole Raja), who generously supported us with 85 kits. Even that was not enough to sustain ~300 families for two months, so we paired families and requested them to split the ration kits.

Phase 2 (starting 20^th May’20): Relief Plus

Given the continuing lockdown, and knowing that the government's cooked meals would soon stop, we decided to make alternate arrangements to support the communities. Most people were still out of jobs as all nearby apartments had locked their gates to outsiders, including domestic workers.

‘Fresh Phulkas’ team pitched in with 300 phulkas per day to supplement the cooked meals provided by the Labour department. Their support continued even after the meals stopped, which helped the community cope a little longer.

For ration kits, we created an appeal for funds and were able to raise a little over Rs. 3 lakhs through generous support from friends and well-wishers. Based on a few learnings from Phase 1, we tried to improve the contents and distribution of the ration kits. We understood the dietary preferences for breakfast and other meals and ensured nutritional requirements were also addressed.

Our revised approach:

• 2 ration kit variants were created based on the size of the family: Small ( <3 people) and Large ( >3 people)

• The kits were customised based on their eating habits and consisted of around 15 items like avalakki (poha), sooji, wheat flour, rice, sugar, tea powder, chilli powder, sambar powder, cooking oil, pulses/peas, onions, potatoes, dhals, salt, soya chunks/ ragi flour.

• The kit for families from South India had ragi flour and dhal for dosas, while the kit for families from North India had more wheat flour and soya chunks.

• We also created a token system to avoid rush and disappointment to the families.

       

A simple token system for ration distribution was implemented with prior registration

Meanwhile, we were getting calls from migrant workers, desperate to return to the safety and security of their own homes. Some had been thrown out of their jobs without being paid for the time they had worked. Others had been asked to return to their hometowns by the same contractors who had brought them to Bangalore. Most had no ID cards, no appointment letters and no savings as they had sent all their money back to their impoverished families in the village.

We initially tried convincing a group of young men to stay back due to the risks of travelling and uncertainty of transport arrangements during the lockdown. Later that night, our community coordinator told us that they had nothing to eat except a few potatoes. After ensuring they got ration kits, we started learning the intricacies of the government system to arrange their train journey back to Bihar. This was a complex process, involving registration in an online portal, waiting for your turn to visit the police station to pay for the train ticket, then waiting again for confirmation to board the bus to the railway station and finally the long journey back home.  

                                                                Happy to be heading home

Phase 3 (starting 28^th May’20): Beyond relief into entitlements 

We are now trying to move beyond relief. 

We have compiled data of availability / non-availability of the following:

          Address proof                             

          Bank Account              

Aadhaar card                 
 
Labour Card 
 
Health card
 
Occupation details

We reached out to NGOs like ‘Gubbachi’ to understand their efforts in community work.

Data collection in progress to enable us to provide future assistance

The Big Question: Can we develop a model that helps them become self- sustainable in similar situations? 

While it is challenging, we have begun taking baby steps in that direction.

Labour cards

We met the team at the Labour department to understand the process to acquire a labour card and also understand schemes for Construction workers and others. We were guided by Mr Veerana Gowda, an official of the Labour Department, on the following:

• Scheme for Barbers and Washer men/women
• Labour cards
• Ambedkar Sahaya hastha scheme
• First aid program for auto drivers

We followed this up with a briefing session for the community to create awareness on prerequisites and benefits of a Labour card (for details click here - Labour Card - Process & Benefits).  An interactive session from Lingaraj, a trade union volunteer who is well versed in labour entitlements, helped the community understand the entire process. As of date, we have submitted 35 applications for Labour cards.

Briefing session about the prerequisites, process and benefits of Labour card by an expert

Women in need

We identified women in distress and built a small case file for 10 of them in one of the communities. We set expectations that while we do not have expertise in handling some of the situations (e.g. alcoholism and domestic violence, supporting children with disabilities), we will try to get help from NGOs that have such expertise. 

‘Gamana Mahila Samuha’, an organization specialized in strengthening communities, especially women empowerment, agreed to support us. Twenty women attended the first meeting, which was wonderfully conducted by Ms. Mamatha and Ms. Parijatha. They made it an interactive session and also arranged for the team from Bandepalya Police Station to join us towards the end to commit their support. The police team spoke about safety, both from COVID angle and violence against women.

       

The session with women in Somasandrapalya community

Auto Drivers

A group of auto drivers in Somasandrapalya approached us for ration kits as they were struggling to make ends meet during the lockdown. We had Chandranna, a volunteer from amongst the drivers, help in consolidating their requests.

We have distributed rations to 35 of them and have also collected their details such as availability / non-availability of address proof, bank account, and health-card to explore if we can give any additional support.

  

   

The auto drivers community

Summary (April – June 30, 2020)

Details	Status
Meals distributed	~5000  (approximately 100 meals, every evening for 50 days )
Ration kits distributed Provided by NGOs Funded by family and friends	~375 50 kits from ‘Diya Ghar’ + 85 kits from ‘Covid relief Bangalore’ 102 small + 138 large
Labour cards applied	35
Families supported	300+ (130 in Gurumurthy  temple area + 105 in Somasandrapalya lake area + 35 auto drivers + others)

Our gratitude to:

• All our friends and supporters – we couldn’t have stretched to the extent we did, without you
• Our on-ground community coordinators (Shyam, Binod, Ravi anna, Chandra anna, Hema akka) who helped us interact with the community and consolidate the needs
• Nagabhushan, Kamesh and Manish for helping in the ration kit distribution
• Fresh Phulkas for providing 300 Phulkas every day for 3 weeks
• Diya Ghar and COVID relief Bangalore team led by Prathap (Pothole Raja) for providing us with 135 ration kits
• Mamatha and Parijatha from Gamana Mahila Samuha for initiating work with women in distress
• Bandepalya Police team for visiting the Somasandrapalya lake community and committing support 
• Labour department and Lingaraj from trade union for providing us with cooked meals for the community on time every day         
• Kavita and Jigna of Kaagaz Foundation for facilitating fund collection on our behalf
• Citizen matters for publishing our story - https://bengaluru.citizenmatters.in/bengaluru-covid-19-lockdown-food-money-shortage-support-rations-train-tickets-45977

Utilization Certificate 

(April – June 30, 2020)

We hereby certify that the expenses mentioned above are incurred for the said project only.

(Lalithamba B.V & Anil Misquith)

Road ahead

We intend to continue our efforts in helping the community access their entitlements. We will continue supporting women in need with external help. We will have to continue with another round of rations, given that many workers are still without jobs. We have also identified few other areas that we would like to address, provided we get the necessary support.

Support required

A. Relief

1. Rental expenses for ~10 women in distress (widows, abandoned, victims of domestic abuse): Rs 3000 – Rs 5000/month
2. Basic utility bills for 300 families (gas cylinder refill, water, electricity): Rs 1000/family/month
3. Ration kits for 300 families: Rs 6000/- will cover 10 small families for two weeks  & Rs 11000/- will cover 10 large families for two weeks (double the amount for a month)

B. Beyond relief

1. Provide jobs for domestic workers, garment factory workers, plumbers, painters, carpenters, masons, cooks etc.
2. Support 7 year-old twins who are speech and hearing impaired (virtual adoption)
3. Support an 11-year-old who is speech and hearing impaired (virtual adoption)
4. Help design and implement new livelihood programs
5. Help design and implement adult literacy programs
6. Support education of children studying in school and wanting to continue further

We need your help to develop this into a community initiative. Do share your ideas, thoughts/feedback to develop this further.

Require volunteers in HSR area who can make time over weekends to join us in our efforts. Reach out to us, if any of the above categories interest you. 

Reach us :

       Email us: communities.hsr@gmail.com

      

      WhatsApp us @ 9845055753 (Anil)  / 9448063776 (Lalithamba)     

About the Volunteers 

 1)  Lalithamba B.V.

Lalithamba is a corporate employee, inclined towards social and civic activities.  She likes to work with people and environment-related activities and has been supporting a few children with education.  She has been contributing to social causes for over a decade.

A few years ago, she co-founded Hasiru Mithra, a citizen’s forum which believes in Sustainable Living. She has been championing the cause of waste segregation and local bus transport.  She has also worked on other initiatives like Tree Plantation Drives, Blackspot removal, Water conservation etc. 

 2) Anil Misquith

    A corporate veteran, Anil Misquith transitioned into the development sector and did a Masters in Development from Azim Premji University in 2019, with a special interest in Sustainable Livelihoods and Public Health. 

     Anil spends half his time in Gudalur, Nilgiris district, with ACCORD, an NGO that works with Adivasi communities. In Bengaluru during the lockdown, he began volunteering for COVID relief in South Bangalore.

Read our stories here 👉 : HSR Community Support Group