"HOVID": Hunger, COVID-19, and Religious Response
 
An estimated 820 million people globally face hunger, with 110 million experiencing acute food insecurity (pre-COVID-19). While global food supplies are strong, rising reports highlight that shutdowns translate rapidly for many into starvation. Many, in different world regions, face a double crisis - hunger and COVID-19.

In India, concern is growing that the 21-day lockdown initiated on March 24 will lead to unemployment and hunger. Of particular concern are the millions who migrate to cities such as Delhi for work. As wages dry up and businesses, factories, and manufacturing units close down, around 100 million migrant workers are stranded without income or food. The national government has promised to distribute 5kg of wheat or rice and 1kg of lentils for all low-income families for the next three months. However, the National Register of Citizens does not include migrants and refugees, meaning that they are not eligible for support. As the Delhi government moves to mitigate the impact of this double crisis with 500 hunger relief centers and hunger helplines, civil society groups, individuals, and religious institutions such as temples, mosques, and gurudwaras are working to feed many thousands of workers, without the scale and reach that the government can provide. Reports describe religious institutions collaborating to feed migrant workers. For example, in south Delhi’s Kalu Sarai neighborhood, each morning two volunteers from the Gurudwara Shri Singh Sabha join volunteers at a nearby mosque to prepare meals in slum clusters and for laborers across Delhi. The interfaith team distributes between 600 and 700 food packets a day; government-issue lockdown passes allow them to pass through police road blocks. They also distribute dry rations such as wheat flour, rice, lentils, soap, and hair oil, providing a vital lifeline for migrants and their families around the city.

(Based on: March 31, 2020, Barnabas Fund article; April 3, 2020, Caravan Magazine article; April 10, 2020, Economic Forum article; and the United Nations Department of Global Communications)