Prayas: The NGO that was on its toe during lockdown 

As India tries to recover some of its normalcy and sanity with the Covid vaccination drive taking off in a big way, pictures of last year's unprecedented lockdown continue to haunt our memories.

The whole country was placed under a complete lockdown since March 2020 due to an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus, according to WHO, that had started spreading across the world and had entered India.

But even as Prime Minister Modi once again took people by surprise by starting his address to the nation at 8 pm on March 24, an NGO called Prayas was on its toes. Prayas is currently running 38 shelter homes in Delhi and has offices in nine states and UTs. Having been a senior police officer, Amod Kanth, the Founder General Secretary of Prayas knew what was coming.

His instructions to his senior staff were clear and precise: "Collect you clothes and items of daily use and reach the office promises and be prepared for a long stay." He knew that from next day getting passes for movement was going to be tough.

While the whole country was confined to their homes, there was no holiday for the Prayas staff that worked relentlessly to support humanitarian efforts by ensuring availability of cooked food and dry rations to a large number of stranded population who could not reach their homes, especially contractual labourers, daily wage workers, rickshaw pullers, construction workers, street vendors, manual scavengers, brick kiln workers, workers working in small repair shops, roadside eatery workers, security guards etc.

Supporting vulnerable communities in Delhi, mostly comprising daily wage labourers and migrant workers rendered jobless, the NGO supplied rations to communities in Sangam Vihar, Tigri, Anand Parbat, Bawana, Jahangirpuri, Badli, Govindpuri, Kalkaji, Kirti Nagar, Navjeevan Camp, Bengali Camp, RK Puram, Okhla, GB Road etc.

The beneficiaries also included hundreds of migrants and others stranded in Delhi due to the nationwide lockdown. It served more than 6.3 million cooked meals in just three months. On an average, the Prayas teams reached out to more than 4000 people per day by serving them hot cooked food as well as dry rations and hygiene kits across the country.

The child helpline team of the NGO functioning at six locations -- New Delhi Railway Station, Janhagirpuri, Bawana (Delhi), Raxaul and Samastipur (Bihar) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands also supported distressed children along with their families. They were provided with dry rations, sanitary pads and PPE kits.

During the crisis the Prayas Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS) at Delhi and Bihar also worked closely with the communities by reaching out to large marginalized and vulnerable families with 'Family Kits' and 'Hygiene Kits' consisting of 10 kg of wheat, 10 kg of rice, pulses, spices, salt, sugar, tea, edible oil, bathing soap, face masks, sanitizers and gloves to ensure that none of the families were left out.

The NGO also extended support to more than 1,000 sex workers living at GB Road in Delhi who were severely affected by the lockdown.