Over last few months, through our counselling centre at Kolegaon, youth and community leaders have been following up with the Ration office in Dombivali to procure Ration Cards for the village’s Adivasi Pada. Unbelievably, our adivasi friends, who are literally some of the oldest residents of the village, do not yet have ration cards or other documentary proof of their existence.
After much back and forth, arguments with the system which asks for residential proof from people who are precisely making such proof for the first time, and a number of strategies which included meeting the MLA Shri Subhash Bhoir with the concerned Adivasi families, 7 families finally got Ration cards this month.
We appreciate the MLA for his positive response, and Shri Yagneshwar Patil – a supportive community leader of Kolegaon. This is a big win for #communityled, #youthled #communitydevelopment for #righttofood, #righttoresidence, #righttocitizenship, right to various government benefits including #health, and other #civilrights. 17 individuals will be getting Aadhaar cards soon…next step is on now for actually getting ration and other benefits.