Two women have come together in Hooghly’s Chandernagore to provide monthly rations to seven underprivileged families and everyday necessaries to 25 school going children.

Moumita Chatterjee, 23, and Joyasri Jana, 25, are college graduates and friends who resolved to help needy families in their home area of Subhas Pally in Chandernagore.

“Sometime two years ago, Jayasri and I were sitting idle. We began discussing the plight of slum children and how we wanted to help them,” said Moumita, who lives with her widowed mother and two brothers and earns around Rs 3,000 a month through tuitions.

Long time friends and neighbours, the duo began putting their personal earnings from private tuitions into the charity drive, alongside preparations for the administrative service examinations. “Back then, we started helping six students fully from our own income,” she added.

Two years on, and aided by their income as well as cash and donations from will-wishers in the area, the duo provide for 25 schoolchildren from different areas of the district in a welfare programme titled ‘5 takar ration’. Alongside, they meet the monthly ration needs of seven families free of cost.

“Five rupees is not the issue as the kit we are providing to the school children costs more than Rs 300,” said Joyasri, referring to the 12 kit hamper comprising notebooks, pens, pencils, colour box, health drinks and biscuits. “We want to see them excel in school.”

According to the duo, they didn’t want their intention to help families to be perceived as sympathy. “We take Rs 5 from the children’s families so that they feel they are a part of this and they don’t think that they are the recipients of sympathy,” Joyasri added.

In late 2017, the friends set up a Facebook page titled Srishti Foundation, which has since garnered over 1,000 followers from the area. The duo said it was part of an outreach effort to let people in the area know about their personal initiative.

“We began to post a list of the items that we were providing to families,” said Moumita.

“Soon after that, many people stepped forward to contribute towards our efforts. We received an excellent response,” she added.

Aside from their campaign for schoolchildren, Moumita and Jayasri scanned Hooghly’s Singur, Telenipara and Bhadreswar over the past one year to list seven needy families to whom they would provide full monthly rations free of cost. In the monthly ration, they provide 10 kg of rice, 1kg of pulses, mustard oil, flour, sugar, tea leaves, sattu, suji, vegetables, detergent powder, tooth paste, soaps, shampoo, hair oil and spices.

“There is a couple from Hooghly where the husband became paralysed recently and the wife is blind. They can’t even leave home. There is also an 82-year-old lady who used to sell papad. We feel happy with our work,” said Moumita.