Lockdown and its implications on the poor in the community

U. Nisar Ahmed IPS

The livelihood of the majority of households depends on their daily earnings. They are street vendors, hawkers, puncture wallas, small mechanics and those who are into petty-businesses. The lockdown has
been and continues to be a nightmare for everyone and a disaster for the poor and the poorest of the poor.

For the last 2 to 3 months during the lockdown, they have lost their means of livelihoods, and whatever small savings they had. During the lockdown, they depended on the noble souls who provided them with some relief by providing them food.

Now that there is relaxation in the restrictions, these sections will
Come out to earn and make their ends meet. It is the responsibility of
The society now to enable them to involve themselves in income
Generating activities. If we do not extend to the financial assistance
At this stage, we will be forcing them to approach the money-lenders
And fall prey to them.

This is the time for the community to come forward and extend a helping
Hand to this needy section of the ummah.

One way to help these needy people in an organised manner
would be to raise a corpus fund and provide to them the minimum
required liquidity in the form of a one-time free grant or a
Interest free microloan, as the case be.

The scheme

The scheme to be implemented through reputed ngos having
Experience in this field already working in the area

  • 1. identifying beneficiaries ( street vendors, hawkers, those involved in petty Businesses) area-wise. Following particulars to be collected from the beneficiary: door no. / address / name/ father’s name/ phone number/Aadhaar number/type of business/ endorsement by the local masjid President.
  • 2. making a cluster of 20 each.
  • 3. minimum one time free grant/interest-free microloan to be advanced is Category I – rs. 5000/- & category ii – rs. 10,000/-
  • 4. interest-free microloan to be refundable: rs. 100/- per week for category I And rs. 200/- or category ii till the entire loan is cleared. Only capital to be Refunded. No interest or processing or any other kind of extra charges to be collected.
  • 5. the beneficiary will be able to avail the facility of micro-loan again after full repayment.

Participation and contribution to the corpus

One cluster of 20 beneficiaries-category I- rs. One lakhs
( rs. 5000/- x 20)= one unit One cluster of 20 beneficiaries-category ii-rs. Two lakhs ( rs.10000/-x 20)= two units of one lakh.

The contribution will be in the form of one unit of rs. One lakh each.
One individual or a family or a group of friends to contribute to
one or multiple of units according to their affordability.

Zakath to be used for one time free grant.
Sadqah and other general charity funds to be used for interest-free microloans.

Total transparency to be maintained in the entire scheme.
U. Nisar Ahmed IPS
Inspector-general of police ( rtd )
Chairman,
National centre for research and development.
Bangalore.

National centre for research and development
Bangalore
Note for extending handholding

National Centre for Research and Development Bangalore
Note for extending handholding

Note: This article is written by Nisar Ahmed which is very helpful. The problems after lockdown has been well identified this can become a futuristic for the whole community specially for the poorer section of the society.

For queries please contact unisarahmed@gmail.com