Calcutta University distributes food items to slum-dwellers – Outlook India

Kolkata, Jun 19 (PTI) As part of an outreach project,
Calcutta University on Friday provided essential food items to
41 families of a nearby slum.

Members of 41 families of the slum at Giribabu Lane,
located near the College Street campus of the university, were
given rice, dal, potatoes, oil, masks, soaps, sanitisers while
the children were given fruit juice and biscuits, Pro-Vice
Chancellor Minakshi Roy said.

“We had adopted the area two years back to provide
academic support to the young and medical help, garments,
healthy food to the children and their family members.

“As the lockdown began and in the prevalent situation
we could not visit the place for past three months. Following
the easing of lockdown restrictions, we decided to visit the
place to come to the aid of the families who are daily wage
earners.

“Of the 50 families, 9 have left for their native
places but we found the rest are in miserable condition,” Roy,
who is closely involved with the outreach programme, said.

Each family was given 10 kg rice, 2 kg dal, 5 kg
potatoes, 1 litre oil apart from mask, soap, sanitiser,
biscuits and juice.

Apart from the Registrar, NSS volunteers and Roy
herself, few university students also took part in the
initiative in which social distancing norms were followed
along with all precautions.

“We wish to follow it up with a similar outreach in
July,” Roy said.

Archana Das, a slum dweller, said that with her
husband who is a paralytic patient, she finds it difficult to
feed her two children as the four households she used to work
as a domestic help have asked her not to come back for work
due to COVID-19 scare.

“They (CU team) were like angels in this hour of
distress,” she said. PTI SUS
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