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International assistance for Chandigarh NGO

CHANDIGARH: Appreciating the pioneering work of empowering people to resolve their issues, U.S. based Global Fund for Children (GFC) has decided to provide financial aid and assist the Chandigarh-based Non-government organisation, Developing of Indigenous Resources (DIR), to achieve the latter’s goals of reducing death rates and improving health among the economically weaker sections living in the slums around Chandigarh.

Vinita Gupta of the GFC met the DIR team led by Amrita Bolaria to forward the assistance. Dr. Gupta, who visited the DIR’s project area, rued that India’s northern States, especially Punjab, did not figure on the map of international philanthropy, as the region was perceived to be developed and progressive.

Dr. Bolaria told reporters that approximately 30 per cent of Chandigarh’s population lived in slums. She said that for quite sometime the DIR was engaged in helping improve the quality of lives of people in slums through education and income generation.

The organisation has reached nearly 15,000 people so far, deploying its own human as well as financial resources, she added.

Dr. Bolaria said that records indicated that 47 per cent children less than three years from the urban poor were underweight, 46 per cent showed stunted growth, 18 per cent severely undernourished and 16 percent are affected by wasting diseases. She said that nearly 50 per cent children from poor areas did not attend schools while the dropout rate was high as 30 per cent.

A successful entrepreneur herself, Dr. Bolaria claimed that in its first twelve months, DIR succeeded in decreasing infant mortality rate by 34 per cent, the number of underweight children was halved and the immunisation cover for newborns was as high as 97 per cent.

Pointing out that the achievement figures of the DIR were superior to anything claimed by government agencies through national averages, Dr. Bolaria said, “In the field of education we have managed to get a substantial number of children out of the slums and into some good public schools in Chandigarh city. These children are faring well and are managing to keep pace with children from upper income backgrounds.”

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