The COVID-19 pandemic-induced lockdown in India turns one on March 24 this year. The images of distress and loss of our fellow citizens cannot and should not be forgotten. The causes of such widespread distress should also not be overlooked. At the same time, the immense wealth of humane response and solidarity to the disaster can be celebrated.
As the planning and development office for Karnataka and Kerala, BREADS has been responding to emergencies regularly. However, the response required during COVID 19 was different. BREADS worked around this situation by networking with various agencies and individuals, forging many rich partnerships with organisations and people in their official and personal capacities to reach out to vulnerable populations. We reached out to people made vulnerable by health issues and circumstances, such as people with leprosy/HIV, the visually and physically challenged, bedridden, elderly and children in institutions, children in conflict with the law/government homes, widows, daily wagers, migrants, slum/street dwellers, tribal/Devadasi/transgender communities, flood victims, people in quarantine centres and even international refugees referred by the UNHCR. Solidarity was expressed diversely, especially through various food items, masks and sanitary items, educational aids, clothes, counselling and volunteering services.
