1. Large no. of families of Nomadic Tribe and the De-notified Castes and Tribes and other most deprived migrate to Pune and Mumbai from different parts in search of livelihood and most of them still practice their traditional occupations and stay in miserable conditions. Their subsistence and livelihood issues are complex and interwoven in complex and extreme Social, Cultural, Psychological, Educational and Economic backwardness.
2. Most of these families frequently change their place in search of livelihood through traditional occupations/practices like begging, playing the dombarya instrument, performing magic tricks, going from house to house with Nandi bulls for alms, entertaining by adorning different dresses and masks etc, for their daily meals and subsistence. They have innumerable problems, including illiteracy, child marriage, no family planning, high mortality of children and pregnant women, abuse of adolescent girls, tobacco/ liquor/ drug, extreme poverty, hunger, superstitions, extremely unhygienic living conditions, children mostly engaged in begging or selling articles on road.
3. Such families that were already living in dire straits in open places, under plastic shelter and not having even the basic facility of potable drinking water, got stuck up at certain places during Corona pandemic as these people were not able to go out, of their sheltering places, for earning any subsistence in that situation due to the lockdown related restrictions. It severely aggravated their hunger and crisis. They were starving and in need of our help.
4. Problems of the Transgenders are known to us. They also remain on roads, every day for their daily meals and subsistence on a daily basis. They also were stuck up and not able to go out for daily earning any subsistence during the Corona pandemic due to the lockdown-related restrictions. They were also starving and in need of our help.
5. SIA was established in Nov 2020, during the pandemic of COVID-19. Obviously, the immediate task and challenge before us was to provide relief to such neediest among the most marginalized and deprived groups during this period, post the first wave of Covid pandemic and during the 2nd wave.
6. We, through our newly established NGO- 'Sanchi Integration Association' remained on our toes and worked persistently and patiently and gave relief to such families of Nomadic Tribe and the De-notified Castes and the Tribes, and the Transgenders during Covid.
7. By appealing to the people for their generous help to these most disadvantaged groups during the pandemic; we collected as much as possible; material including food grains, ration kits, clothes, mattresses, blankets, bedsheets, nutrition kits, hygiene material, and distributed among the most affected and neediest families of such Nomadic Tribe and the De-notified Castes and the Tribes. Many of these groups suffering from extreme hardships and hunger got big relief because of our drives on a regular basis. While doing so, we also availed the opportunity to educate such most deprived families on the importance of health, hygiene, education and family planning.
8. We also distributed materials, including food grains, ration kits, clothes, mattresses, blankets, bedsheets, etc. among such neediest Transgenders groups who were suffering from extreme hardships and hunger. Many such groups suffering from extreme hardships and hunger got big relief because of our such drives.
9. We collaborated, joined hands with other NGOs, particularly the Sadhu Vaswani Mission and distributed large no. of ration kits among those staying in open, nomads in and around Pune city and the poor tribes in Ambegaon, Junnar and Khed talukas.
10. We also purchased large quantities of the above essential material from time to time and distributed it among the above neediest groups including the Nomadic Tribe and the De-notified Castes, Tribes, Transgenders, etc.
11. It was difficult to keep an account of such relief drives and materials distributed in such extreme distress. However, from some of our limited records, maintained at that time, we can say that apart from miscellaneous reliefs in the form of smaller ration kits in large quantities, the distribution was much more than 2,190 big ration kits (each containing food grains, flour, rice, pulses, edible oil, masala, sugar, tea, nutrition items, etc. to suffice for at least a month to an average family of about 6 members) and clothes among the neediest families of such Nomadic Tribe and the De-notified Castes and the Tribes, Transgender communities staying at Shrirampur (District- Ahmednagar) and few other places, Pardhi community staying at certain villages in Shirur taluka and other places.
