Sundarbans is in
the remote southern part of deltaic West Bengal, India which is inhabited by
over 4 million people. Livelihood has always been very challenging for the
residents who have been mostly dependent on farming, fishing, honey collection
etc which have been barely sufficient to meet their basic needs. Since the last
few years, their sufferings have worsened drastically because of the
reoccurrence of natural calamities with an alarming regularity. The area had
already witnessed cyclone Aila in 2009 and since then suffered minor and major
cyclones like Cyclone Fani and Bulbul in 2019, Cyclone Amphan in 2020 and now
Cyclone Yaas in 2021.
After covid-19
Pandemic the villagers of Sundarban delta area are in a terrible crisis of food
and money. After devastating storms, the villagers are very much vulnerable to
the economy. To improve the situation, MUKTI has come up with their innovative
model of “Food for Work”.
Goals and
Objectives
●To create jobs
●To create awareness
amongst community members
●To provide them food
support in exchangeof work
●To provide a dignified
means of livelihood to the people
●To provide
a clean, green and a healthy environment to the people.
This
model is primarily targeted for the women in and around Sundarban area. MUKTI
started this program with 20 women and now the organization has reached out to
5000+ beneficiaries through different projects. The beneficiaries are getting a
monthly food support from Mukti inexchange of the work done. The food packet
consist of rice, dal, biscuit, soap, spices, oil, potato and onion.
Progress Till Date:-
We
have facilitated 5701 villagers through “Food for Work”. The projects include
13 different programs like Mangrove Plantation, Nursery, Support School,
Beautification of Rads, Road side plantation, chicken rearing etc
Way Forward Plan :-
Support 100 housing to adopt the model. Each housing will be getting INR 75,000, Architectural and Engineering support
An Engineer and Architectural team will be on site to guide and complete all these 100 houses in a short span of one year
New build from scratch and already built house would be retrofitting to confirm cyclone and flood tolerant
To
help more people to give them a better life and motivate them to serve the
society. These deprived people of Sundarbans need
our help and support. Due to climate change the Sundarbans faces several
challenges. With no rain for harvest, groundwater decreasing, rising sea
levels, floods in agriculture areas, islands are disappearing and the increase
in the number of cyclones per year is causing massive damage to the life of the
locals. The pandemic and joblessness situation has left them not living a good
life. It's high time to build a sustainable solution using local material and
by employing the local population.
MUKTI has planned to create such
initiatives of creating more livelihood opportunities to reduce poverty and
live a healthy life in this region. For this we need your support. We urge you
to take a step ahead and donate to the needy people of Sundarbans.
