Two organisations — one political and the other social — are essaying roles to help people survive as they battle crises inflicted on them by Covid-19 and Cyclone Amphan.

While the CPM has started two community kitchens in Durgapur to feed people who have lost jobs because of Covid-19-induced lockdown, Food Education and Economic Development (FEED) of Asansol has opened three centres to serve food to residents of a few villages in the Amphan-devastated zones of South 24-Parganas.

FEED, run by Chandrasekhar Kundu who teaches computer science at a private engineering college in Asansol, has been feeding around 1,000 people every day for the past four days at Kultali and Namkhana blocks of South 24-Parganas. The red brigade has been offering cooked food to nearly 2,000 people daily in West Burdwan’s Durgapur since May 21.

“Everyday, we are serving cooked food to those who have lost jobs because of the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown. Our initiative has become a people’s movement. Several people, including those who are known for their opposition to us, have come forward to help the initiative,” said CPM leader Pankaj Roy Sarkar.

A FEED volunteer serves food Picture by Abhijeet Chatterjee

“Many people, especially day wage earners, hawkers and small shop owners, have lost income. Many of them have lost jobs after factory owners reduced manpower. Our trade unions are fighting for them but we also need to feed them,” he said.

For Kundu, the job is tougher. Camped at Kakdwip, he is feeding hundreds of people while taking online classes for his students every day.

“Our organisation has been feeding people, especially underprivileged children, in Asansol and many areas of the state for the past four years, but I couldn’t sleep after seeing the hungry and helpless faces at these villages,” said Kundu.

Kundu decided to serve the cyclone-hit areas after some of his Facebook friends introduced him to Prabhati Mandal, a school teacher in Kultali, and Sheikh Samiullah, a college student at Mousuni Island. With their help, Kundu has set up the community kitchens.

“Initially, we started with Kultali and from today, we are feeding people at Mousuni Island, where all houses have been damaged in the cyclone. The helpless people have taken shelter at a primary school,” said Kundu.

“We are preparing rice, vegetables and pulses daily but the problem is in arranging raw materials for cooking as Amphan has damaged most shops and markets,” he said and added Naba Bikash Club of Burnpur had helped them with rice, potatoes, pulses and edible oils.