Food and Livelihood Campaign during Pandemic
Background
Covid-19 pandemic has let the world scramble like never ever. Not a single person remain unaffected by this unprecedented crisis of our time. All of the world have been affected by this deadly virus, in various degrees. In India the entire nation was under locked down for more than 3 months followed by gradual unlocking. The people are going through huge economic distress as almost everything is shut down, opportunity to earn wages, small producers unable to get to markets to sell their products, accessibility & availability of essential commodities and services becoming a big challenge. Due to the sudden announcement of nationwide lockdown many migrant laborers have been stranded, unable to earn their daily wages and people with minimal savings in miserable condition. The State and Central Governments have declared economic packages to take care of this unprecedented situation. However, due to lockdown, making the services reach the grassroots level has become a mammoth task. In spite of all noble efforts by Governments and civil society the woes of people living on the margins are not eased. The atmosphere of uncertainty is prevailing everywhere. Nobody knows the kind of new challenges tomorrow will unfolds. The challenges to access food, the basic need of human remains the core issue for the poorest of poor.
The media reports say the public distribution system is yet to reach every one. P Sainath, an acclaimed journalist on rural distress while speaking to Nidhi Rajdan of NDTV has warned scarcity of food may lead to riot like situation. Prof Jean Dreze, a well-known welfare economist argued for universalization of public distribution system so that everybody gets foods. He further states that reverse migration of laborers to rural area will pose great employment challenges. More than 10 lakhs people have returned to their own state from other states, most of them being seasonal migrants. Their meagre savings have dried up during lockdown, remittances to state are affected and people are in need of employment. In such a situation National Food Security Act (NFSA) and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) plays a crucial role in mitigating the problems of rural communities.
In Odisha, the Government has proactively declared supply of 3 Months ration in advance, 4 month advance pension to elderly and widows, formulated own state food security scheme to cover 5 lakhs left out beneficiaries of NFSA and cooked food is provided in every panchayats for the sick, indigent and destitute. Similarly the central government has also announced 5 kg extra rice per person for next 3 Months along with 1 kg of pulse. This is a recognition of the demand from Odisha Shramajeebe Manch (OSM) and Mahila Shramajeebee Manch Odisha (MSMO) for the longest time to include more beneficiaries under NFSA and make it a nutritious one by providing pulse and edible oil along with rice.
The central government has announced an extra allocation of Rs. 40000 crore to MGNREGA to meet the rural demand. Relaxations during lockdown were announced. Special guidelines were issued to cover the project of National Resource Management (NRM) and nutrition kitchen gardens. State Government has decided to dig large number of multi-purpose farm funds to create durable assets.
Looking at the scenario, we launched two campaigns to ensure food and livelihood for the poor and marginalized people in the state. The first one is “Mission Rahat Campaign – No Hunger Campaign” where we tried to ensure nobody remain hungry during this pandemic. The second one is the “Livelihood Campaign” aimed to provide employment to rural poor and migrant laborers who came back to their villages during the pandemic.
Campaign 1
Mission Rahat Campaign -No Hunger Campaign
Objectives :
- Every needy person in the village shall be included under NFSA
- Each and every sick, indigent and destitute person of the village shall get cooked food provided by government
- Every eligible household should get relief packages like 30 kg Rice, 1 kg Dal, Rs 1000/- and gas cylinder
- Each and every migrant laborer stranded out of village shall get assistance from Government
- If any one at any time from the village immediately needs food, s/he shall be provided food by tagging the Government, NGOs and other generous individuals
- Every individual household requiring employment should be facilitated to get employment under various programmes of the Government
- To initiate policy advocacy based on the learnings and findings from the grass root situation
Process/Strategy :
- Conceptualization of No Hunger campaign under Mission Rahat
- Division of responsibilities among the team
- Status mapping of villages
- Immediate relief intervention in case of need
- Linking the grievances for Government assistance
- Providing earning opportunities to villagers
- Social media Campaign
- Evaluation of Campaign
Activities taken :
- Conceptualization of No Hunger campaign and discussion with team members
- Training and orientation to team members regarding the campaign
- Conducting survey by our team members in villages to assess vulnerability
- Collection of data, analysis and implementing work accordingly
- Formation of twitter warriors’ group from the team
- Immediate relief provisions for needy people
- Linking the grievances with Government assistance process like submitting application, twitting the problem to concerned authorities
- Following up with authorities
- Organizing virtual meetings with concerned authorities
Achievements during campaign :
- Formation of an active social media warriors’ team to highlight the issues
- More than 2200 Twits were made to state government officials, ministers, media houses and district collectors highlighting the issues related to food security
- More than 400 Households were added in the State Food Security Schemes
- 1068 people in Bhubaneswar slums were supported with ration through our mobilization
- 341 people who were not getting cooked food were facilitated to get food
- More than 150 cases were highlighted where people were not getting ration due to problem in Aadhar linkage and maximum issues solved
- Virtual conference call with Honourable Minister of Food and Civil supply
- Activating the Government system through social media campaign
Challenges :
- The lockdown announcement may be extended with some parts of country making restrictions in people movements.
- It might be challenge to reach each and every sathis for survey.
- There might not be large number of people in need of immediate relief. So resource mobilization may be challenge.
- Channelizing every issue of food and employment through social media may not solve all issues.
Campaign 2
Livelihood Campaign
Objectives :
- Ensuring livelihood for 125605 families under MGNREGA
- Creation of long-term income generation assets through MGNREGA during and after COVID 19
- Reducing the migration rate in 16 districts of Odisha
- Creation of 1 lakh Man-days per day in 16 operational districts
Activities taken :
- Trend analysis of demand generation versus actual man-days
- Marking potential District, Block and Gram Panchayats
- Setting targets in individual, Groups, and Area approach
- Listing the types and numbers of assets to be targeted in the campaign
- Discussing the objective with administration and offering the support of OSM and MSMO for smooth implementation of the plan
- TOT of DM and TL’s about the objectives, purpose strategies and current declarations and changes in MGNREGA
- Orientation of all coordinators and JS on the same topics
- Identification and listing of CSO’s, Youth groups and volunteers who will support the campaign
- Collection of project plans from DRDA and blocks
- Tracking and Monitoring
- Establishing help desks in 16 district head quarters
- Facilitation and filling up of C1 demands
- Submission and receipt of acknowledgements for the demands
- Follow up for issuance of work orders.
- Inform and mobilize people to join the work.
- Ensure Muster Roll Generation and timely payment
- Recording issues and success stories and testimonies
- Initiating a campaign on Social Media
- Networking with other organizations, experts, and individual activists for highlighting the issues.
- Lobby and Advocacy with concern secretaries, ministries and departments for unemployment allowances and delayed payments.
Process & Strategy :
- Collecting information of previous year trends and analyzing it
- Identifying potential areas & motivating people to work
- Writing letters to State Government regarding our campaign
- Attending the Government preparation meetings, collection of approved works and finding out common action points
- Organizing virtual meetings
- Coverage in social and print media regarding our campaign
- Online orientation through small groups or through individual person
- Tracking the progress in format, regular calls and updates
- Collection of stories
- Division of work among the team members
- Wide social media campaign
- Formation of a Help desk formed and help line number circulation to address the problems
Achievements :
- Help desk launched in 16 districts, 50 calls per day received
- More than 77000 Households demanded work under MGNREGA
- Mobilized more than 55000 Households are engaged in MGNREGA every day
- 16 district 72 Blocks, 571 Gram Panchayats covered so far during the campaign
- Discrepancies in MGNREGA is highlighted in social media
- The Grassroot functionaries have attended meetings at block level and district level as per GO-NGO meeting.
- 12 district level meetings attended by our team leaders
Challenges :
- Lock down imposed in certain parts, even contaminated zones
- Engagement of GP and Block functionaries in Covid-19 work
- Approaching rainy season
- Agriculture season started
- Lack village wise need-based projects
- No women centric projects to encourage women workers
- Lack of motivation due to problems in payment in the past and wages less than minimum wages in state
- Only state and district level administration is seriously taking MGNREGA but not the grassroot level functionaries