A puja in Kasba’s Rajdanga has allocated a part of its budget for buying sewing machines, beauty kits, saris and a month’s grocery for some women from South 24-Parganas whose income has been hit by Covid-19 and Cyclone Amphan.

Rajdanga Naba Uday Sangha handed over the sewing machines to 15 women, beautician’s kits to 50 women and grocery to 100 women, said Susanta Ghosh, the president of the puja committee.

Ghosh said the club had distributed ration among residents of the Sunderbans immediately after Cyclone Amphan devastated their villages.

“We kept aside Rs 5 lakh from our Puja budget to help them,” said Ghosh, who is also the ward coordinator of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation’s ward 107.

Among the recipients was Kanika Dalui from No. 10 Punyakhali village in Basanti block. Kanika, 35, used to work in a creche at a school in Kasba. The creche closed after the lockdown was imposed in March.

“The children are at home. There is no need for the creche. We lost our jobs as a result,” she said.

Then Amphan ruined the seeds that she and her husband had sowed. “We were already living on reduced income after I lost my job. Then the cyclone completely ruined our investment of about Rs 5,000 we made in sowing the crop,” she said.

Kanika said the ration provided by the club - rice, wheat, cooking oil and turmeric - was adequate for one person for a month.

The elder son and mother of Prabhabati Mondal, 49, who got a sewing machine, lost work during the pandemic. Prabhabhati works as a tailor and trains women in her village in sewing.

“In earlier years, I would have no time to spare before Durga Puja. This year I have little work,” she said.