Fifty-five year old Khairun Nisa, a widow from village Koibar in Gaya district of Bihar lives with her son in a mud house without any windows. During winters, the space for windows is covered by polythene bags, so as to not let in, the cold air blowing in the village.But the polythene bags put on by Nisa are too thin to subside the bone chilling cold in harsh winters of northern India. Her son being a daily wage labourer, can’t afford warm blankets and clothes for everyone in the family of six.“We don’t have enough blankets to keep every one of us in the family warm during the winters. Most of the time we keep ourselves warm by burning the wood,” says Nisa.Similar is the case of Shakeela Khatoon, 40, a widow from Village Jholabheda of Chatra district in Jharkhand. She and her children’s work in a farm just earning enough to survive.“We can’t afford warm clothing and blankets, as it is difficult for us to make our means meet ends. I tried buying blanket once, but I didn’t hadn’t that much savings,” says Shakeela.
Taking note of such difficulties faced by people and continuing with its practice of distributing warm clothes and blankets among people with the onset of winter and sharp dip in temperatures, Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC), a US-based relief organization, has started the distribution across various cities and villages in different states across northern India.1164 needy and most deserving families comprising of 4656 individuals have been provided with warm clothes and blankets in hundreds of villages and slums in J&K, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Punjab and two southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.Families of Khairun Nisa and Shakeela Khatoon were also provided with blankets and warm clothes.In Jharkhand’s Chatra and Palamu districts along with Gaya district of Bihar, approximately 600 families have been provided with blankets and warm clothes.“Warm clothes distribution is a multi stage process. We do surveys and make a list of widows, destitute, needy and most deserving families and people who are in dire need of warm clothes and blankets. Then a day is fixed when our volunteers go door to door to deliver the kits,” says Bihar based volunteer of IMRC, Maulana Wahid Nadvi.
The distribution also took place in Ambala, Mewat and Faridabad of Haryana and Malerkotla in Punjab.“This year we have been able to reach such villages where help in any form has never reached before. People are happy and very appreciative of our timely help,” said Mohd Shafi, IMRC volunteer from Haryana.Earlier this month the warm clothes were also distributed among the fire victims in Dalgate, Srinagar.Notably, each year IMRC assists the needy during the cold wave in areas of Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Jharkhand, and Bihar.Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC) is a US based non-profit organization which began in 1981 and helps run several programmes throughout the country in partnership with over 100 organizations. It focuses on providing education, emergency relief, medical & legal aid, shelter and food for the needy. It has been at the forefront of providing immediate relief to affected victims of the 2016 Bihar Floods, 2015 West Bengal Floods, 2015 Nepal earth quakes, 2014 Kashmir Floods, 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots, 2012 Assam riots, and other natural/man-made calamities.