Several children and their families, who are still struggling financially because of the pandemic, had something to cheer about this Durga Puja.
Several organisations came forward to provide new clothes and ration to them during the festive season.
Some of these organisations have been helping them even before the pandemic. But the need to help intensified during this period when many have reduced or irregular income.
Before the pandemic many of these parents would at least buy clothes for their children if not for themselves.
“Many of the mothers thanked us profusely saying that had it not been for the clothes that their children got they would not be able to wear a new one this year. Whatever little they earn cannot be spent on clothes they said,” said Ananya Chatterjee of Calcutta Rescue.
Calcutta Rescue, an NGO, provided 600 families with clothes and doubled the amount of ration.
Society for Heritage & Ecological Research (Sher) identified 2,800 families in Sunderban Tiger Reserve, South 24-Parganas forest area, Howrah, Hooghly, Paschim Medinipur with the help of the forest department.
“These are places where human beings coexist with wildlife and sometimes there is a conflict between the two. To contain the conflict and help them co-exist, we have to win the confidence of the people living there,” said Joydip Kundu of Sher.
Sher has been providing them for the last seven years.
But in the last two years, the need to help had become more after many of the residents migrated back to their native places because of loss of livelihood during the pandemic, said a forest official.
Howrah Vivekananda Siksha Kendra provided clothes and raw meat and fish during the puja days.
Calcutta Social Project, another NGO, dispersed the ration and new clothes before the puja so that the “aged and abandoned” did not face any disruption in their aid.
“During the Puja, we tried to reach out to some families outside our group of children to make their festive days better. We provided them with raw meat and fish so that they could at least enjoy a good meal in the four days, which has become a rarity for them now,” said Tanmoy Patra, the founder of Howrah Vivekananda Siksha Kendra that also distributed new clothes.