By Sujata Jena

Bhubaneswar, August 8, 2020: The federal government’s food security projects to help the poor during the coronavirus pandemic have not benefited many people in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, says a survey.

“Since the time of lockdown food security problems are not lessening and therefore clear steps should be taken before it is too late,” says a press release from the Community Led Local Entitlements and Claims Trackers (COLLECT) that conducted the survey.

India on March 24 imposed a 21-day nationwide lockdown from midnight that day to contain the coronavirus pandemic. It was extended several times since then.

In Odisha, eastern India, poor people, including migrants, who possess no ration cards, have been deprived of the benefits of the food security projects, the survey says.

On August 6, COLLECT organized a webinar on Covid-19 accountability dashboard. It demanded that shops operating under the Public Distribution System should provide rations to all, whether they possess the ration or not.

Non-card holders in most villages of Odisha, have not received the ration under Covid-19 relief, COLLECT told the webinar.

COLLECT is a sister body of the Partners in Change (PIC) and Praxis, two national institutions for participatory practices.

“Earlier in May, the federal government announced that the migrants without ration cards should all get rations but Odisha government didn’t lift any stock,” bemoans Sameet Panda, a consultant of PIC for Odisha region.

To address the traditional top-down approach on data gathering and control, PIC launched the COLLECT that aims to document and monitor the 20-trillion rupee package announced by the federal government to help the poor during the coronavirus pandemic.

For this, the COLLECT partners of Odisha started a phone survey on access to Covid-19 entitlements and related problems, especially among the marginalized communities, minorities of social and economic status who depended on daily wage livelihood.

They collected information from 73 rural and seven urban villages in eight of the poorest districts of Odisha –Balangir, Baragarh, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Keonjhar, Koraput, Rayagada and Sundergarh.

The members reported that no non-card holder received ration in the 80 villages as promised under Covid relief. Some process of registering them began in June in some 20 locations.

The survey also revealed that in 42 villages, people who have applied for work under Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MGNREGA) but none got work under the scheme.

Those tracking the implementation of the government projects observed that government agencies have not undertaken a process to procure agriculture produce from farmers in 44 villages.

The COLLECT activists also noted that mental health patients in 54 villages could not get any medicine or treatment.

The PIC partners told the webinar that children in 46 locations could not access online classes.

“Many eligible individuals in Lanjigarh block of Kalahandi did not to get ration card or pension as they have no Aadhaar cards. It has become a herculean task for anyone to get an Aadhaar number more so since lockdown,” bemoans Phulme Majhi, a partner of COLLECT from Kalahandi.

Veronica Dungdung, another COLLECT partner, says children studying in the day school received ration in place of Mid-Day-Meal, but not those studying in residential schools in many parts of Sundergarh district. “These discrepancies must be addressed,’ she asserted.

Other findings of the survey are:

The registration for unorganized workers was not started in 45 villages. Many workers were not even aware about the need to register.

Children in 46 villages could not access online classes. In five locations, children would drop out and go for work if the situation continues.

Projects like old age pension, widow pension, disabilities’ pension have benefited by the registered individual from each village. However, in June, no one received gas cylinder subsidy under Ujjwala scheme in 24 villages and support from Jan dhan scheme in 28 villages.

The who applied for work under MGNREGA didn’t get job during April-June in 42 villages. Those who got the job received revised wages.
Among 80 villages, 23 were not aware of any help lines. Only half of them knew about child line.

Ashish Berhra, a COLLECT partner from Bargarh district who facilitated the webinar, says the data is available onwww.community collect.info.

The webinar concluded saying that the people on the margins are not only data points, or data collectors but also owners of the data who can use it for advocacy with local administration to fulfil the ‘Leave No One Behind’ mantra of the Sustainable Development Goals.