At home with his wife and three children in Kotla Mubarakpur, Bashir Ahmed, a tailor from Jharkhand, reached out for help with rations on Tuesday.
While he took loans from friends and managed to get some rice for a few days, Bashir said that they were likely to run out of food in the next couple of days. Going to the sites set up for free food was not an option either as they were often very crowded. “What if we contract the disease?” said Bashir, adding, “It would be better to die of starvation”.
Going to such bhandaras meant waiting in line for several hours, with very low chances of actually getting any food, he said. “Even if I get, all they give is three or four puris..that’s not enough to feed my family,” said Bashir, who chose to keep his family at home when he ventured out.
He also said that he did not know any of the helpline numbers provided by authorities and had no idea about them. While a local leader had got in touch to promise to make a ration card for him so as to access supplies, Bashir said that no progress had been made on that end either.