Bhubaneswar: After helping crores of migrant workers and marginalised people across the country during the COVID19 lockdown period as part its nationwide Mission Anna Seva, Reliance Foundation has further extended support to hundreds of artisan families and migrant workers in Odisha. The Pattachitra artisan families at Raghurajpur craft village in Puri district and Sabai or golden grass artisan families at Pratappur in Baliapal, Balasore have been provided with dry ration kits by Reliance Foundation this week in collaboration with local NGO partners.
Due to the current COVID19 situation and restricted movement of people and tourists, hundreds of artisan families in these two craft clusters have been in distress for several months. In a bid to support their essential needs during this period, Reliance Foundation provided dry ration kits comprising boiled rice, dal, cooking oil, sugar etc. to nearly 160 Pattachitra artisan families at Raghurajpur in Puri district through Raghurajpur Heritage Tourism Committee on Tuesday. The Foundation further extends its support to around 100 sabai or golden grass artisan families at Pratappur in Baliapal, Balasore on Thursday in collaboration with local NGO partner Kalaghar.
Besides, Reliance Foundation in coordination with the district administrations of Ganjam and Bolangir is slated to provide similar dry ration kits to home returnee migrant workers in Ganjam and Bolangir. Over the next few days around 1500 migrant workers in Kukudakhandi, Hinjilicut, Patrapur and Dharakote blocks in Ganjam will be provided dray ration kits by Reliance Foundation in collaboration with local NGO partner PREM. Similarly, around 400 returnee migrant workers in Bolangir will be provided dry ration kits by the Foundation in collaboration with Bhimpahad Krushak Producer Company Ltd of Bolangir.
It is worth mentioning here that Reliance Foundation, through its Mission Anna Seva, the largest meal distribution programme undertaken by a corporate foundation anywhere in the world, has provided over five crore meals across the country during the lockdown period. It provided free cooked food and family dry ration kits to marginalised communities and labourers across the country. As part of this mission, Reliance Foundation in collaboration with local NGO partners Odisha Gujarati Samaj and Humara Bachpan Trust had provided over 6000 family dry ration kits to the marginalised people in slums areas, old age homes and migrant labour camps etc. in Bhubaneswar, Cuttack, Khurda and Bhadrak in Odisha in April and May.
The families and individuals covered under this dry ration kits distribution included manual rickshaw pullers, city cleanliness and sanitary workers, inmates of old age homes, slum dwellers, migrant and daily wage labourers, housemaids, persons with disabilities. Besides, dry ration kits were provided to truckers transporting essential goods during the lockdown at all six Reliance Petrol stations in Odisha located at Khurda, Chandikhole, Paradip, Ainthapalli in Sambalpur, Sohela in Bargarh and Girisola in Ganjam.
Joining India’s fight against COVID19, Reliance Foundation has donated Rs. 535.3 crores to various relief funds including Rs. 500 crores to PM CARES Fund. Reliance Foundation has also set up India’s first 100 bed exclusive Covid19 hospital in collaboration with municipal corporation in Mumbai. As part of its Covid19 relief RIL has provided free fuel to emergency vehicles and scaled up production of one lakh masks daily and thousands of PPEs for health workers. Besides, its telecom arm Jio is providing seamless connectivity to nearly 40 crore individuals and thousands of organisations while Reliance Retail is providing essential supplies daily for millions of Indians.
