As India, a country of 1.3 billion people, enters its second week of a 21-day lockdown to battle the coronavirus outbreak, millions are struggling with receiving basic food and supplies. In a bid to help daily wage workers and those who fall in the unorganised sector, GiveIndia has stepped forward in partnership with a number of NGOs to provide food and basic necessities to those in need.
GiveIndia has launched two initiatives to help the disadvantaged and support families in need – one, to provide a safety net for the economic toll and two, to provide protection against the spread of COVID-19. The aim with the former is to help daily wagers put food on the plate while the latter aims to provide hygiene kits to underprivileged families across India who do not have access to soaps, sanitisers, and masks as well as support people at the frontline in hospitals.
“Our NGO partners are working actively as we speak. Hygiene kits, rations and cash support are being provided to verified individuals and families. We will make weekly disbursements… Our onground partners are working round the clock to bring relief to especially the marginalised/poor families, and individuals and families who have lost and livelihoods,” CEO of GiveIndia, Atul Satija told Connected to India.
In fulfilling its initiatives, GiveIndia is partnering with NGOs such as CRY, HelpAge, Goonj, Bhumi, Oxfam, ActionAid, Team Everest, Habitat for Humanity, Sevalaya and others.
It also counts Omidyar Network India, McKinsey, AU Small Finance Bank, Meesho, Genpact, Flipkart, Myntra and Jardine Llyod Thompson among its corporate partners.
The campaign, which began on March 23, raised over INR 1.5 crores from over 6000 donors in the first three days itself.
“The current target is a little over INR 100 crore, but as we get more requests from our non-profit partners, the target keeps going up. There is a huge need for support across the areas of disease spread prevention, improving healthcare delivery and system capacity, humanitarian needs and socio-economic impact. We are working with over 30+ trusted NGO partners on ground to support COVID-19 interventions,” said Satija.
GiveIndia’s outreach to the poor will be in the form of money, food and hygiene kits, with ration/ Aadhar card details and phone numbers being used to verify the authenticity of the person and their loss of earnings due to the coronavirus.
“On March 30, we will make the first disbursement of about INR 60 lakh to our NGO partners who will forward the monies to the end beneficiaries within two days. To check this, we will also make calls to the beneficiaries to ensure the funds have reached them,” said Satija.
Currently GiveIndia’s NGO partners are operating in Delhi, Maharashtra, Assam, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Maharashtra, West Bengal and Karnataka with plans to extend their efforts to more cities and states.
“The whole world is suffering, but those without any job security or savings are the most vulnerable. Please consider this as an appeal for help and we urge everyone to Give generously to those hit hardest by COVID-19,” appealed Satija.
GiveIndia is accepting donations from both domestic and international donors.