COVID-19 Emergency Response

The Challenge

When the pandemic hit, Jodhpur’s Pakistani migrant settlements faced it with almost none of the safety nets other communities could rely on. More than half of the roughly 30,000 displaced people living across the city’s settlements had no citizenship, incomes vanished under lockdown, and even basic protective supplies like masks and soap were out of reach for many families.

Our Response

With Children’s Hope India (CHI), UJAS organised community volunteers — settlement residents like Hemji in Anganwa, Nathak in Chokha, and Govind in Kaliberi — to identify the families hit hardest and distribute 1,000 COVID relief kits across ten settlements: Anganwa, Chokha, Kaliberi, Gangana, Alkoser, Banar, Bhilo Ki Basti, Chandna Bhakhar, Pratap Nagar, and Boranada, reaching close to 1,950 households. Each kit carried soap, sanitiser, masks, and a UJAS safety card on preventing infection — and, where lockdown had cut off access to shops, sanitary pads for women who could no longer step out to buy them.

Separately, recognising that the settlements were themselves home to more than 30 qualified doctors and 70 trained paramedics displaced from Pakistan, UJAS equipped 50 of these volunteer paramedics with community healthcare kits and protective equipment — turning the community’s own medical knowledge into a frontline response, and building confidence for future emergencies. Action Aid contributed a COVID-19 awareness brochure to support the community education effort.

In Their Own Words

Saroj Kanwar, a single mother of three who works as a school cleaner in Bhilo ki Basti, said receiving a kit made her “feel empowered and secured” at a time when meeting even basic needs was a daily struggle. Hemji, a volunteer in Anganwa who lives there with his wife and five children, said every household in the cluster received a kit, and that the children “feel joyful to get the games and will play secure and safe in this pandemic time.”