From Karnataka To Rajasthan, Good Samaritans Come To The Aid Of Workers Affected By The COVID-19 Lockdown

In what was a joint effort, several NGOs, individuals and a group of alumni of National Law School University of India (NLSUI) Bengaluru, helped the migrants from Chhattisgarh to fly on an all-expenses-paid special flight from Bengaluru to Raipur in Chhattisgarh on Thursday (4 June).

It was a day that these 180 migrants, women and children included, are never likely to forget for their entire lives. After all, they had been desperately trying to leave for their native places, rendered jobless by the COVID-19 lockdown. Many of these migrants were working in construction sites, farms and small factories in various parts of Karnataka. However, they had been unemployed ever since the nationwide lockdown was announced in March.

The NLSUI alumni, under their initiative 'Mission Aahan Vaahan', have so far helped around 500 migrant labourers stranded in Mumbai and Bengaluru fly to their native places in Jharkhand, Odisha and Chhattisgarh. Tanveer Ahmed, a member of Mercy Mission, an NGO, has reportedly said that several organizations came together to bring the migrants to the airport from various parts of Karnataka.

The alumni body also took the responsibility of coordinating with the Chhattisgarh government for the arrangements in the state. The state was ready with medical screening and transport facilities once the migrants arrived in Raipur. The alumni hope to ferry more migrants in the coming weeks.

Source: Outlook India

Empathy from a government official

A government official's family in Rajasthan is spending six hours in their kitchen every day so that they can feed the needy. Pained by the plight of migrant workers and the poor, in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdown, the family of Omprakash Saharan, sub-divisional officer (SDO) in Jaipur's Chaksu, has been devoutly following a drill of cooking tens of kilograms of food, packing and distributing them every day ever since the lockdown began in late March.

The New Indian Express reports that Saharan and his wife Vikas wake up every day at 4 a.m. and start preparing the food, in which they are helped by their two young daughters and their domestic help. They make hundreds of rotis and tens of kilos of vegetables and rice, spending around ₹5,000 from their own pockets every day to buy the raw materials.

According to media reports, Saharan decided to jump into this effort when his repeated appeals to help the desperate migrants went largely unheeded. The family started its food service in late March, when the COVID-19 lockdown was announced, and Saharan says that he will continue to feed them until the situation improves. 

Source: The New Indian Express