COVID - 19 Response

At 18, Sarathi is determined to get her sisters’ educated. Belonging from a minority group and growing up in the absence of a mother has time and again presented her with various challenges.

Sarathi resides in the Purulia district of West Bengal. Her family consists of her father and three sisters. Her mother passed away after giving birth to her fourth child. Her father took up a job in the city as it was not possible to take care of four daughters with the meagre income that farming produced. Day after day, they lived from hand to mouth.

Sarathi did not give up, though she gave up her own studies after Class 11 and took a job in a beedi factory. Together with her father, they saved enough money to ensure the studies of her two younger sisters and get her elder sister married.

As the nationwide lockdown was imposed due to the Covid crisis, things took a turn for the worse. Sarathi and her father lost their jobs and were left to survive on their bare minimum savings. It became impossible for the family to manage daily meals.

Hope arrived in the guise of Purulia District Agragami Mahila o Sisu Mangal Samiti, who with the support of CARE India and Coca Cola provided dry ration kits which provided more than 14 items customised to the nutrition needs of vulnerable families like Sarathi’s.

When Sarathi received the kit, she was relieved and shared “Now that the daily needs will be fulfilled for a few days, I will try to get a new job and work hard to ensure a better future for my family”.

During COVID – 19 crisis, Coca-Cola and CARE India provided dry-ration kits with meticulously curated food items to meet specific nutritional needs of various marginalised groups such as migrant workers, daily wage earners and people living with HIV/AIDS across various parts of the country. The three-month long programme benefited over 1.5 lakh people.

CARE India Team