SRINAGAR, April 28 (KINS): It has been six-years since Zoona Begum’s husband passed away. She lives on the Srinagar outskirts along with her son, who is a footpath vendor. For the last over six-weeks, her son has not been able to earn a single penny. The family’s income has been dried up so are the essential commodities.
“It is very difficult to survive under present circumstances. We don’t know how long this lockdown will continue. My son is sitting idle at home,” she told news agency KINS.
She said some of her relatives helped her in these crises. “How long can we be dependent on relatives,” she added.
She is not an isolated case. There are hundreds of people who are finding it hard to feed their families.
“There is nothing left for us. We don’t have money to buy medicines for my daughter, who is suffering from various ailments. My husband, who is a bus driver did not earn much since August last year when the Article 370 was abrogated,” said Haseena (name changed), a resident of Bemina.
Similarly, in Pulwama district, Haleema Bano lives in an old mud house with her differently-abled daughter. But her neighbors have been helping her these days to feed her family.
“It is because of locals support, I manage to feed my family. We have no other option than to seek help from people to feed ourselves. Poor people are hardest hit by lockdown,” she said, whose husband died in an accident over a decade ago.
“Last year after abrogation of Article 370, it were also locals who helped me. I did not face much problem that time,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Srinagar administration has prepared a 50 thousand food kits for distribution amongst impoverished families in the district.
The distribution of free food kits amongst the said families is being made to support them during the month of Ramadan in view of the prevailing situation due to COVID-19 outbreak.
Each of these 50 thousand kits includes multiple items of food ranging from rice to wheat to edible oil to tea to spices. Each kit has 5 kilograms of rice and 2 kilograms of wheat and a packet each of other said items packed into it.
District Development Commissioner Shahid Chowdhary has said the aim of distributing free food kits is to support the impoverished families of the district during the month of Ramadan in view of the prevailing situation with restrictions in place due to outbreak of COVID-19.(KINS)
