CORE, a US-based crisis response organization in collaboration with MASHAL, a Pune- based NGO plans to reach out to 10,000 families living in 36 slums in Hadapsar ward. The objective is to help families living in slums, access COVID management kits and mobilize them to take vaccinations offered through Pune Municipal Corporation.Under the initiative, the organization prepared 10,000 “CORONA KAVACH” (Medical Kits, it includes Oximeter, thermometer and other 12 medical items) and distributed 6800 kits in 36 slums of Hadapsar ward where the positive cases are increasing. MASHAL is weaved team of residential community volunteers (RCV), which is basically a network of young community health care volunteers residing in slums itself. In a broad sense, it is an initiative to create medical literacy and educate them about their illness. For instance -Diabetes, Blood Pressure and many more.

Objectives of this project were –

To impart proper knowledge about the project to Residential Community Volunteers (RCVs).2) To make RCVs aware about the Medical Safety Kit (CORONA KAVACH) as they will be going door-to-door to distribute it.3) To provide help to slum dwelling families to access COVID management kits. MASHAL prepared 10,000 CORONA KAVACH and distributed them in 36 slums of Hadapsar ward, JantaVasahat and red-light areas where the number of positive cases was high. CORONA KAVACH included Oxymeter, Thermometer and other 12 essential medical items.

MASHAL started potential closure from 18th March i.e. ahead of State lockdown on 22nd March and the Center’s Lockdown from 24th March. COVID-19 days disturbed organization’s normal working and we closed down the office.

On 27th March MASHAL felt the need to be active in the relief work to support those whose livelihood were affected by sudden lockdown. The worst affected were of course migrant labourers, daily wage earners, workers in informal sectors, commercial sex workers and transgenders. Orphanages and Old age homes were also adversely affected. MASHAL started identifying the needy and appeal for raising funds.

Cooked Food Distribution

MASHAL in collaboration with I-PAC distributed total 22,320 cooked food packets in 11 days at various slum pockets in the Pune area.

Dry Ration Kit Distribution

MASHAL distributed 7,332 dry ration packets in 45 days.

Cadbury Chocolates Distribution

MASHAL has been distributing approximately 2040 Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolates to various orphanages and hospitals too.

Face Shield and other equipment’s

The equipment mentioned below were distributed in Pune city to various hospitals/institutions like Prayag Hospital, Deccan, S.M. Hostel, Hadapsar, Gadital Police Station, Mohmmadwadi Police station, Ward Office Sanitation workers and many others.

Surakshit Safar Sewa

Helped 3,000 migrants to travel back to their respective homes.

• Facilitated around 2300 people to travel to Jharkhand and Bihar

• Facilitated 160 people to travel by air to Orissa • Facilitated around 100 people to travel to Rajasthan and Jharkhand.

• Helpline evolved as collective of individuals and organizations engaging in common focus of facilitating migrants to travel to their home state.

A devastating fire incident on 28th November 2018, led to disastrous collapse of 450 houses inthe dense Patil Estate Slum on the land owned by College of Engineering, Pune (CoEP), on the banks of the Mula river in Shivajinagar. This slum is home to large numbers of waste pickers, people working in informal sectors, and a transgender community, who had all incrementally built their homes through years of work, only to become vulnerable once again. People lost everything that they owned in the blaze including their documents. Municipal workers and thepolice, along with volunteers from different organizations, worked tirelessly to remove gascylinders and vacate the homes. MASHAL had already surveyed this slum for developer Polestar in 2012, and again for CoEP Collegein 2017. Because of their familiarity with the area, MASHAL is assisting PMC officers with aLoss Assessment Survey on the site and plans to offer assistance to fire affected families.MASHAL further proposes to design strategies for short term and long-term rehabilitation plan for the Patil estate slum involving professionals, owner of land (CoEP college), PMC, SRA, State government and collaborating with various architecture/ engineering colleges.

The Settlement of Milind Nagar occupies low lying areas adjoining the Pavana river at the Pimpri camp. It is inhabited by Dalit and frequently affected by floods. The government administration was keen to find a permanent solution to the problem of flooding and approached MASHAL to address the challenge at hand.

MASHAL first undertook a base line survey and then used their findings to reimagine Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation designs that would align to the low rise-high density model. The organisation has succeeded in Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation 1000 families into new walk up apartments, characterized by their modular design, economy of services, aesthetically pleasing character-especially the courtyard feature, ample common spaces on every floor, and scope for cross ventilation and light availability. The USP of the design of the building was its low maintenance overheads.

Understanding the importance of people’s participation in any development project, the Pimpri-Chinchwad Corporation while initiating a slum reconstruction project for the flood affectedpeople at Pimpri Camp asked MASHAL to involve the slum dwellers on its behalf, for activeparticipation in the project. The main objectives of MASHAL are to create awareness anddetailed understanding and knowledge of the scheme amongst the community and to motive andorganize the community and to motivate and organize the community for their involvement andparticipation in the scheme. Apart from the social input for the project, MASHAL has prepared acomprehensive architectural design for the same based on people’s perceptions and aspirationsafter a lot of interaction with the slum dwellers.

In 1993, the Latur earthquake, popularly known as the Killari earthquake, killed 10,000 people andcompletely destroyed 54 villages, partially destroying over 100 more. Due to the massive scale of the disaster, a wide range of players with varying skills, acumen, and resources were involved in the relief and rehabilitation. The political leadership saw an opportunity to convert the disaster into an opportunity and execute out of the box solutions with a focus on inclusivity. The technical prowess of renowned and established engineering firms, including Kirloskar Consultants, TCE, STUP, CES, and Mahindra, was sought to undertake this massive rehabilitation exercise. Maharashtra Arogya Mandal, under the able leadership of Dada Gujjar, raised funds from a German organization to rehabilitate families from two villages that weren’t covered by government assistance. Dada Gjjar expressed faith in MASHAL’s abilities and entrusted them with the responsibility of disaster rehabilitation for these two villages with nonconventional material and technology.

Committed to people’s participation and using the skills and material available, MASHAL sourced skilled manpower from within and from the adjacent communities. The Burud community were bamboo workers and their five skilled workmen became the chief craftsman in the training of 30 local youths (10 girls and 20 boys). In a display of solidarity with MASHAL’s work, a well-known political leader of Pune based himself in the village and along with the other youths learned the craft of bamboo joinery. MASHAL also helped to set up a community kitchen to provide one-time meals to families who were offering Shramdaan.