The programme is integrated with various activities related to the disaster relief and are aligned to respective 3 Sustainable Development Goals.

Pratigya, in association with Barefoot College International, presents information related to COVID 19

Jharkhand is home to the highest percentage of poverty stricken population among all states of India. As per Niti Ayog's SDG Index & Dashboard report 2019-20, Jharkhand has about 37% of population living below the national poverty line. It ranks first among all states of India in terms of poverty.

The same report says that on "No Hunger Index" Jharkhand ranks first from below among all states. About 44% of the children of state below the age of five are anemic and 43% of the children below the age of four are underweight. About 63% of pregnant women between the age of 15 -49 are anemic as well. State has also witnessed the highest number of hunger deaths in recent years.

Ranchi, the capital city of Jharkhand hosts the largest urban slum dwelling population in the state. About 90 vulnerable pockets spread over 53 wards of Ranchi Municipal Corporation has rough estimated population of about 2 to 3 lakhs. These pockets contain about 60,000 poor families. Out of these poor households, there is a group of families whom we can be called as “Poorest of the poor”. This population includes single parent, widow, person with disability, family with severely ill members, family having old age without pension and other distressed household. An urgent support is needed to them to ensure their basic food that too for longer period of time, till certain stability comes in their income and life post corona pandemic lockdown. Number of such families is around 18,000 to 20,000.

Pratigya's Covid Response in 2020

Pratigya has been actively involved in bringing relief measures to the hard hit underprivileged families of Ranchi by providing dry ration since the very first lockdown due to Corona pandemic. Pratigya has also been hosting the Hunger Helpline run through Deputy Commissioner's Office Ranchi. Both the activities have been described in detail below.

a. Ration to disadvantaged families

With support from various concerned individuals and organisations, Pratigya has so far directly provided dry ration to over 3700 disadvantaged families in Ranchi, thereby touching the lives of around 18000 people directly. It also facilitated support of food and ration to about 700 families through other organisations, thereby reaching upto 4400 families and 22,000 people in Ranchi.

Pratigya in association with IIM Ranchi and Ranchi District Administration started “Each one Feed one” distributed dry ration to more than 2500 most disadvantaged families living in slums and rural areas of Ranchi. Through other programme, Pratigya supported 1200 more families with dry ration. Thereby supporting about 3700 families and 18,000 population directly. The disadvantaged families include single parents, widows, persons with disability, severely ill members, old age without pension and other distressed families including migrants with almost no resources left to carry out day to day food expenses due to lockdown because of the corona pandemic. They are mostly the households not covered under the public distribution system of government including families of the leprosy infected beggars.

Pratigya also facilitated dry ration to about 700 families through other social organisations working in Ranchi, thereby by supporting to another 3,500 lives.

Thus till date Pratigya has supported over 4,400 families and 22,000 people so far during corona lockdown .

The ration kit contained provided directly by Pratigya contained an average 10 to 15 kg rice, Wheat Flour 5 to 10 kg Pulses 1 to 2kg , Sugar – 1 Kg, Salt- 1 Kg, Gram- 1 to 2 kg , Vegetable Oil- ½ to 1 Litre, Jaggery -1/2 to 1 kg, Soap Potato, Onion, Spices ,Tea leaves etc. The ration kit sufficed for a family for about 15 days.

This whole endeavor came as a great relief to about 22,000 people who otherwise in all probability would have undergone starvation. This also gave a decent cushioning period to the families to arrange for ration from other sources. Especially in the period when government’s support is extremely limited and in many cases negligible. These ration kits have also helped these marginalized people in covering their nutritional need to an extent in this situation of crisis.

b. Hosted Ranchi District Hunger Helpline

Pratigya had hosted the “Hunger Helpline” run by Ranchi District Administration for over two months in 2020. Pratigya’s calling volunteers received and processed hunger needs continuously for over 12,000 calls during this period continuously without even a single day break. Over 12,000 families had been facilitated cooked food or dry food through this helpline.