New Delhi: The basti of toy sellers at Mayapuri Industrial Area in Delhi is grappling with hunger amid the nationwide lockdown.
With no money to buy rations, the families in the basti have to resort to the Delhi government’s hunger relief centre in the area. But the meagre servings of dal-chawal distributed at the centre can barely feed two people in a family.
Left with no alternative, the families have started sending their children to collect food and water from different sources.
“My parents will go hungry if I don’t get food,” eight-year-old Sahiba told the Indian Express.
With steel plates in their hands, children like Sahiba are seen daily standing in a long queue outside a nearby MCD school.
Starting their day at 6 am, the children first spend five hours getting water from a DJB tanker, then they have to wait for two hours to get their first meal of the day. While many make a second visit to the hunger relief centre to collect more food, a few roam around the area in search of food from other sources.
Besides hunger pangs, these basti residents are highly vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus disease. With around 10 to 15 people cramped in a room measuring 6×6 ft, social distancing and cleanliness are a distant dream for them.
Also, most of the families don’t have soaps or sanitizers to wash their hands, and instead rub ash from their chulha before having their meal.
The toy sellers usually earn around Rs 300 per day under normal circumstances, but they have been struggling to make ends meet during the lockdown. The families are hoping for the situation to get normal so that the kids don’t have to shoulder the responsibility of “hunting” for food..
