‘View Other Civil Society Organisations, Government as Allies against COVID-19’

My name is Abodh Kumar and I am from Bihar. I have been associated with the social sector for the last 15 years. I have been working as a co-founder and trustee of Project Potential in Kishanganj, Bihar, for nine years now. Our aim is to strengthen the community and ensure that people of the community can themselves find solutions to local problems. We also work towards capacity building of the youth.

A lot of our projects have been halted because of COVID-19; however, we realise that we can work on development and education later on, but right now the safety of people is priority.

The pandemic has raised challenges of food and employment for people.

Our organisation has made ration available to almost 10,000 families. We have also been providing monetary help to people wherever required. We are reaching five lakh people via radio to generate awareness.

The current situation and the associated challenges demand us to be ready to learn new things. We will have to find innovative ways to take our work forward. We also need to help other organisations so that a bigger network can be formed and the expanse of our work increased.

All of us are currently dealing in some way or the other with the pandemic. Often, in discussions, people say that it is difficult (or not useful) to work with the government. The perception is that the government does not give enough importance to the work that we do. However, I believe that we should work with the government.

As a social sector organisation, we don’t have a lot of human resources or money, but the government does. I believe that we can work with the government and make use of these resources to better public services.

When the government sees the work and its impact then it eventually also makes us a part of its system.

This interview was first published on the Hum Aur Humaari Sarkaar website in Hindi on 16 April 2021.

Source: Project Potential