CYSD

“Our community people show their strong resistance for taking the Covid vaccine because of fear of psychosis. The reason being, if anyone is found Covid positive, the health personnel will take him/her away from our community during night; put the patient in an unknown hospital and not allow relatives to stay with the patient; and finally without giving any medicines the doctor will declare the patient is dead (as we see in TV). Thus, my community does not have faith on doctors,” shared Nageswar Haraka, a Community Volunteer from Rekhapadar Village of Kolnara Block, Rayagada without any hesitation.

Nageswar says that due to lack of proper housing tribal people stay thickly in one room. They don’t know the practice of isolation. If the health administration will come to our community and conduct home visits and test each people, then the spread of Covid can be checked. A concerted effort is needed at this critical hour and people from all sections of the society should join hands to fight Covid pandemic together. Realising the gravity of the situation and after CYSD’s intervention the tribal people are slowly coming forward to take vaccines.

Debjeet Sarangi, a leading development and environment activist based in Odisha, breathed his last on May 15 at a Bhubaneswar hospital. He was only 53 at the time of his untimely death.

In a relatively short time, Debjeet had made very important contributions relating to justice, environment protection and evolving a new development paradigm. His contribution to looking at tribal communities living in remote areas from a perspective of appreciating and understanding their world view and learning from them has been particularly commendable, as many of those working with tribal communities do not go beyond well-intentioned but limited attitudes of help and patronage.

Debjeet grew up with a strong sense of justice which was cemented further when he came in contact with a village where most of male residents   had died due to silicosis or tuberculosis after exposure to high levels of dust and other hazards at a stone mine. He also worked with the Narmada Bachao Andolan for some time before forming the Living Farms organization. The work of Living farms relating to organic and natural farming won a lot of praise from several quarters.

In the course of this work the production of healthy and safe food was emphasized and while links were forged with urban consumers also, the  better availability of more healthy and organically grown food for rural people themselves also got the due attention.

The least understood but very high nutrition potential of several foods collected from forests traditionally from natural forests was also emphasized and also highlighted by properly documented studies which contributed much to the knowledge of bio-diversity and nutrition. This obviously had important implications, as the existing official policy had been displacing natural forests with commercially oriented monocultures in many places without realizing the great loss of medicinal and nutrition potential, particularly for local communities , apart from wider harm.

The  work of Living Farms with the Kondh tribal community of Rayagada, Odisha, was also important from this context as this community was being threatened with displacement from highly  unjustified and destructive projects and it was important to bring out the less understood importance and value of the traditional systems involving close, even sacred, links between natural forests and human beings which are of great value and on which the life systems and value systems of the Kondh community are based to a large extent .

Debjeet Sarangi had the vision needed for such understanding. He contributed to this understanding himself and helped to create the conditions in which other visionaries and learned people could have a better chance of such appreciation and learning.

I had the good opportunity of visiting some villages, urban settlements and schools in around Bhubaneswar where Living Farms had been working. I was greatly impressed with the great rapport which the activists of Living Farms had built with the teachers and students of some schools in a short time with the result that there was not only great appreciation for organic farming but in addition students were enthusiastically taking this up in vacant spaces in school and preparing to take up composting as well, relating to disposal of kitchen wastes generated from the cooking of mid-day meal. In a village I could see the quiet but deep commitment of women for organic farming and healthy food, and their great zeal to take this forward in very creative ways. In urban and rural areas very creative work relating to kitchen gardens was being spread.

Certainly the work of Debjeet Sarangi was along very creative and visionary lines, and much that is very valuable has been lost very suddenly with his untimely death. His family, friends and colleagues will no doubt strive to carry forward the work of this visionary, and they should get all the help and encouragement in this effort.

With the objective on how effectively the Residence Welfare Associations (RWAs), Senior Citizens’ Associations (SCAs) of Bhubaneswar and Odisha CSOs can join hands together with the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC); and set up of a collaborative approach to deal with the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic crisis, CYSD played a critical role in bringing these multi-stakeholder actors into a common platform virtually on 16^th May 2021.

The virtual meeting was moderated by Shri Jagadananda, the Co-founder & Member-Secretary of CYSD.  Addressing the virtual meeting, the Commissioner of BMC Shri Sanjay Singh welcomed the citizen leaders of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation and appealed for the need of a multi stakeholder approach to overcome the pandemic crisis. Shri Singh, with the presence of his Zonal Deputy Commissioners, apprised the current strategy, issues and problems on the ground and the steps taken by the Municipal Corporation so far to deal with the challenges.

The CSOs leaders / representatives including NGOs; RWAs and SCAs offered their willingness for active assistance and articulated their feedback and suggestions as per the following heads:

Effective Vaccination is the need of the hour

• Vaccination drive is on force to protect the citizens from the on-going pandemic. The vaccination centres under BMC is becoming crowded and chaotic. To avoid the large number of crowd at one place, more number of vaccination centres may be formed.
• The Residents’ Welfare Associations (RWAs) are ready to support the BMC officials in getting the list of eligible persons for vaccination. Simultaneously, the crowd management can also be effectively done by the volunteers of RWAs in their respective areas.
• Door step vaccination need to be provided to the persons with disability as they find it difficult to reach the specified vaccination points.
• Prior information on vaccination may be provided to the citizens through RWAs to make it more effective as well as to avoid vaccine wastage, if any.

Strict regulations for the essential shops is of utmost important

• With the imposition of lockdown, the vegetable and fish markets are becoming overcrowded as it closes by 12 noon every day. To minimise the crowd and to regulate the social distancing norm, instead of large markets/haats small vending zones may be formed by blocking main roads of different areas.
• The timing of the essential shops may be alternated to 6 AM to 10 AM and 3 PM to 5 PM.

Special attention is required towards slum dwellers, orphan children, migrant workers and construction workers

• With the wake of 2^nd wave of COVID 19 pandemic, the slum dwellers and construction workers are out of work. Some social protection measures may be planned to protect their livelihood.
• The urban homeless and orphan children have become the most vulnerable section particularly during the ongoing pandemic. The provision of food and shelter is of utmost important which is taken care of by some NGOs. To address the issues of homeless and orphan children, the CSOs have offered to join hands with BMC, wherever necessary.

 Provision should be made to initiate special cells at BMC

• A senior citizen cell as well as a cell for person with disability may be formed to pay attention towards the special issues all through the pandemic.

Formation of web portal and/or mobile app

• A dedicated web portal or mobile app may be designed to update the availability of beds at the COVID care hospitals; a critical need felt by one and all.

Activation of Ward level citizen group

• Ward level COVID 19 response committee which was active during 1^st wave of pandemic may be re-activated in each ward.

Mental health of COVID 19 infected persons and their families need to be taken care of

• The ongoing pandemic has created new issues and problems among the COVID 19 infected persons and their family members. To minimise the level of stress, mental health counselling sessions are being offered by CSOs: the need for coordinated action between CSOs and BMC was highlighted.
• While at hospital, the anxiety and trauma of infected persons is making their situation worse. Virtual counselling and stress free services were articulated as critical need beyond the treatment.

The recent mass vaccination drive, especially meant for the Bonda Tribe in Khairput block of Malkangiri district and the Dongaria Kondh tribe in Niyamgiri Hills of Rayagada district has created unpredicted tensions for the district administrations due to lack of awareness among both the tribes.  However, administration accepts this challenge positively and has devised a new strategy to protect the primitive tribal population in particular and other tribal groups in general.

In a mission mode, the Rayagada district administration, especially Kolanara Block Development Officer sought the collaborative support hand of CSOs in the process of Covid Vaccination, RTPCR, Rapid Antigen Test, TTT (Test, Track & Treatments) Policy implementation and home to home survey involving community based organisations and grassroots volunteers for mass awareness creation. Responding to the call made by Kolnara Block Administration at the GO-NGO Coordination meeting, CYSD, being a key play in Rayagada district, extended its obligatory support in 10 Gram Panchayats (GPs) of Konara Block. The GPs are Suri, Kolanara, Badhakilapadar, Dunduli, Gadisekhal (5 GPs in plain area) and 5 GPs above Kailsh Ghati like, Rekhapadar, Bhoimoda, Katikana, Bankili and Jhoridi.

In the process of extending support to the said GPs, CYSD has been able to reach around 5742 population of 98 villages in  Kolanara block through village youth volunteers, CRPs and more importantly approaching the educated youth mass – using video conferences, WhatsApp groups to motivate their own community people and get them involved in the vaccination drive.

CYSD field volunteers along with ANM, ASHAs and Anganwadi Workers jointly took an innovative step to persuade the tribal people i.e. by adopting a strategy to reach every house from village to village in 10 GPs. Through this intervention out of 2247 eligible persons for vaccination in Rekhapadar GP, a total of 45 person took the first dose in one go. “This is quite encouraging for my GP, I am quite sure, adopting this mobilisation process, my GP will achieve 100 % vaccination in next 2-3 months”, said Ms. Jayanti Tadingi, Sarapanch, Rekhapadar Gram Panchayat.

CYSD, like last year, has geared up its response to Covid-19 in extending all possible support towards minimizing the impact of this deadly virus.

With a strong presence in the rural and tribal areas, CYSD through its large Community Based Organizations (CBO) network, dedicated Community Resource Persons (CRP), Volunteers, and partner organizations could able to assess the likely impact, especially on vulnerable sections. Based on this understanding CYSD has carved out its strategy for immediate and medium term measures.

This coordinated strategy will help CYSD to intensify Covid engagements in its 6 tribal operational districts of South & North Odisha – Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Koraput, Malkangiri, Rayagada and Nabarangpur; and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation area (Khurda district).

Guiding Principles

Strategy: Immediate Action (Short Term -3 Months)

Strategy: Medium Term Action (3 – 9 Months)

When it seemed like we are recovering from the first wave of Covid outbreak, situations got far worse with awakening of second wave. Many did predict it and we can’t deny that we did not see it coming.

Induced by Covid outbreak leading to lockdown, the issue of migrant labourers was much highlighted during the first wave. This time it is hitting masses more directly and bluntly. As central government shies away, states have taken upon themselves to enforce lockdown.

Starting with night curfews and partial lockdowns, Odisha Government exercised state-wide lockdown from 3^rd May 2021. Infections are uncontainable even during lockdown. Lives and livelihoods have become a question for many with advent of ‘the new normal’. Major concern growing, is Covid pervading into rural areas. Whereas in cities and towns, healthcare infrastructures are profound, rural places lack basic health care systems.

This sense became reality when I faced a situation in early days of lockdown. On 3^rd of May, I was in a meeting and I got news that one of our esteemed colleagues (late) Mr. Debjeet Sarangi of ‘Living Farm’ is suffering from Covid in Bissamcuttack, Rayagada. I was informed that he immediately required medical attention and had to be admitted in ICU. To have him transported in an equipped ambulance to Vizag (around 250+ Kms) was thought first. Due to unavailability of bed, his family and friends made huge efforts and moved him to Bhubaneswar (360+ Kms). He was admitted to a special Covid care hospital. His family was in isolation as they came in contact with him during transit.

Inside the special Covid care hospital no outside things were allowed. The doctor had asked for other medications needed for treatment but the family was not in position to move around. I volunteered to keep daily medicine supplies. Inside hospital, long minutes of wait had to be backed by doctor so that receptionist accept supplies.

Even though medicine stores were open, it was not easy to roam within the city. I had to go through blockades, police checks, and records to reach the hospital. The city police was helpful to pass me after brief enquiries.

There’s insufficient medicine supplies in market. Finding prescribed medicines has become a challenge. Medications like Remdesiver, Tacloban, Methylene blue, respiratory meter, ice blanket, Oxygen cylinder are difficult to procure. I even came across black markets dealing with these essential medical supplies. Not to mention that there’s no guarantee of these products. A few stores where medicines were available were kept for ‘reserved customers’. Fortunately, we were able to procure medicines.

It was 15^th May morning. The efforts put by many people to see Mr. Debjeet recovered was in vain. He succumbed to Covid after being on ventilator for many days. Not so long after, on 19^th May we lost another colleague from WASSAN Mr. Shubham due to post-Covid complications. We had to wait for 2 hours at the crematorium as all the pyres were set on fire.

My parents had taken 1^st shots of vaccination offline from nearby UCHC. While booking for the 2^nd shot I had scheduled it on Sunday. Post weekend shut downs there was no intimation of rescheduling it. There’s a clear gap in vaccination drive. And what about people who are digitally not familiar with these procedures?

Covid and lockdowns are tough, but are there no other solutions?