RANCHI: ‘Daal-Chawal,’ a team of professionals working outside the state and currently sitting idle at home in Ranchi, is distributing free dry-ration packets to the poor and needy who have lost their jobs or livelihood due to lockdown.
The team ‘Daal Chawal’ started it on their own with a Facebook post: “If you know someone around you who is in need, please let us know, we would try to help them.” It drew a tremendous response from the people. Soon they started receiving funds from those whom they did not even know.
The quartet of Trishi Pandey, Ria Pandey, Prashanto Banerjee and Priya Banerjee purchases dry ration from the market, converts it into small packets of rice, dal, biscuits or bread and distributes them among the needy.
“We began our campaign because no one was thinking about those who have lost their source of income due to lockdown and are on the verge of starvation,” says Trishi Pandey, a lawyer. Though the government is also distributing ration among the poor, it is haphazard. “Ware doing it where government assistance has failed to reach. We carefully identify such people”, she says.
The group is also trying to deliver free basic grocery items. “We ascertain if the recipients really want our help. There are many people who refuse,” says another member of Daal-Chawal, Prashanto Banerjee, an animation artist. The group gets leads about needy people.
“We were sitting idle at home and thought of doing something for the Covid-affected. We decided to distribute dry ration to the poor and needy,” says Prashanto. The group created a Facebook page ‘Daal-Chawal’ to make it convenient for the people to reach out to the group, he said.
Priya Banerjee, a teacher, says that it all started casually. “Going by the response, we converted our effort into a serious social service,” she says.