By Raqib Hameed Naik, TwoCircles.net
Hyderabad: Hamida Bee, 55 lives alone in a single room rented accommodation, after losing her husband to an illness, some years ago. Even her own son, who lives in another locality of Hyderabad, doesn’t visit her, forcing her to venture out and earn on her own. At 55, with myopia, she has to work as a house maid to sustain herself.
Ramadan becomes more difficult for this religious lady, as she has to work, to earn ‘Iftar’ and “Suhoor’ despite observing fast for whole month of Ramadan.
Another widow Rubina Begum, a Septuagenarian from Nampally locality of Hyderababd, is unable to speak. Ironically, her only daughter is also a widow. She lost her husband some years back due to illness. Now, the mother-daughter duo work as house maids to sustain themselves.
“My mother is 68, but still has to work because, if she doesn’t work, then there won’t be sufficient ration in our home to eat. My income isn’t sufficient to sustain our family of three,” said her daughter.
Going down south, in Karnataka, Mastan Bee, 63 a widow from village Chidri in Didar district has a similar story to tell. She has no children and relies completely on Zakat and charity for sustenance. Sometimes, her neighbors come to her rescue and provide her with ration, but that only lasts for few months.
The situation in Bidri Colony, located 4 kms from Chidri Village is no different. Here, Fatima Bee, 30 lives along with her three daughters. Fatima works as a sweeper in a local private school, earning a measly salary of Rs 800 per month; an amount that in today’s day and age wouldn’t be enough to even arrange one square meal for a single person for whole month.
Going up east of India to Telijant village in Bankura ditrict of West Bengal, hundreds of stories of harsh survival starts pouring in from almost every district in this state. Take the case of Manowara Bibi and her husband Jumman.
Bibi, 30, and Jumman, 45, work in the scorching heat in a nearby forest, collecting Shawl leafs and woods to sustain themselves, despite fasting for the whole month. The couple and their two children live in Telijant, a Muslim dominated village in Bankura District of West Bengal and the fate of almost all families in this village is no different.
To provide ease to all such families across India, US-based Indian Muslim Relief & Charities (IMRC) reached out to widows and needy like Hamida Bee, Rubina Begum, Fatima Bee and Manowara Bibi across 22 states during the month of Ramadan with the money collected in charities – zakat and fitrah.
IMRC distributed 6,70,395 kgs of grain, over 48,75,600 (4.8 million) meals to 20,315 families benefitting 81,260 persons across 22 Indian states in this Ramadan.
The food in grains package includes items such as wheat flour, rice, lentils, oil, salt, chilli, onion and other spices for whole month of Ramadan.
Now Hamida Bee and Rubina Begum don’t have to worry about work during Ramadan. Similar is the case of other widows, orphans, poor and needy, who benefitted from IMRC ‘Ramadan Feeding Program.”
“Every year in the Ramadan month I used to pray to Allah to send us some help. Allah has accepted my Dua and has send me with food grains this Ramadan.May Allah bless all those who provided us with food packages,” said Golbahar Bibi, 70, a widow from Telijant Village in West Bengal.
“Mastan Bee from Chidri Village of Karnataka was very happy to receive the ration, as she don’t to have to worry about food in this holy month of Ramadan,” said Abdul Qadeer, IMRC volunteer from Karnataka.
In Haryana, taking cue from IMRC Ramadan Feeding Programme, the Harayan Waqf Board, CEO Akeel Ahmed, who is also Additional Director General of Police, Law and Order, issued directions to officials to distribute ration of Rs 2 lakh among the poor.
“Akeel Ahmed had inaugurated IMRC Ramadan ration distribution in Haryana earlier this month. When he saw that the Indian Diaspora of America can come forward to help people in India, he wondered why Indians could not do the same. So, he directed Haryana Waqf board to distribute ration of Rs 2 lakh among poor and needy ,” said Shafi Ahmed, IMRC volunteer from Haryana.
Importantly, last year also IMRC had distributed 545,000 kgs of grains, over 3 million meals, to 15,000 families across 19 states in India.Notably this year it has been extended to three more states.
The 22 states covered under the Ramadan Feeding Program included Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Manipur, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Odisha, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand and Nagaland.