Save Migrant Workers in India - AN URGENT APPEAL!

Did you know that an overwhelming 120 million or more people in India are estimated to migrate from rural areas to urban labour markets, industries and farms?

These people have been termed as “migrant workers or labourers” as they migrate from their villages and small towns in rural areas to bigger cities of the country to earn a living. Most of them form a part of unorganised sector workforce including seasonal or casual workers. Majority of such workers work on daily wages or at very low fixed wages, without any social security and healthcare benefits.

Coronavirus Lockdown and its Impact on Migrant Workers

When India witnessed the largest coronavirus lockdown in the world, a month ago, millions of migrant workers were left stranded in many of the country’s big cities without any jobs, money, food or homes. Desperate to return to their villages and towns to reunite with their families, millions of migrant workers gathered in clusters in such cities, defying all the required social distancing norms and putting their and other peoples’ lives at risk. 

Amidst the crisis, most of the migrant workers started walking, barefoot or without any transport, towards their villages and towns which are thousand miles away from the cities where they were in. However, due to restrictions on movement in the lockdown, some of the migrant workers were placed in shelter homes, but because of limited spaces and resources, thousand of such workers are still living under bridges, on the streets, near highways, in unsanitary and unhygienic conditions, hungry and needy, without any food, money, water and work where social distancing is far from one’s sight.  Some of them have committed or attempted to commit suicide and some have died untimely while walking back to their homes where they couldn’t make it that far. 

Migrant workers in India need you…. They need your support, kindness and generosity on urgent basis. A little helping hand from your side can save millions of such workers’ families from dying from hunger before they are killed by Covid-19…. Please don’t let them die...

Why we need your support?

More than 92.5% of migrant workers have lost their work due to the current lockdown, over a million workers are in relief camps, while around half a million have walked back to their homes. Given this situation, all our efforts will be targeted towards ensuring that the relief material and funds reach migrant workers in India who need it the most, and whose livelihood has been severely impacted.

Who I am and how your contributions can save lives…

As a part of this initiative, I appeal to you to contribute towards the pledge to save the lives of migrant workers of India who have gone homeless in the current situation with no money to even buy food or water with temperatures rising in the country… They are the ones most exposed to contract Covid-19 risking their and other people’s lives. The Indian Government is under a lot of pressure to deal with the pandemic with over 1.3 billion population in the country with a little focus on migrant workers at present. A little help from you can lift up the country’s labour force from poverty and hunger.

I am a female lawyer who has been working in the areas of social security and employment laws for the past 10 years and providing legal aid for social causes, pro bono. 

With the help of other lawyers, people in the legal fraternity and other volunteers, my aim is to redirect the funds contributed by you to the workers who have lost their jobs or are struggling to earn a livelihood.

The funds will be used:

• To provide migrant workers with ration kits which will include essential food items like rice, wheatflour, salt, sugar, oil, spices, etc;
• To provide them with weekly groceries;
• For distribution of daily meals to workers on the streets where there is no provision to cook;
• To give milk to them as most of the families have children under 5 years of age who are severely malnourished;
• To give them clean drinking water bottles;
• To provide them essential toiletries like soap, toothpastes and tooth brushes, shampoos to maintain basic hygiene and sanitation, specially required to fight coronavirus;
• For distribution of face masks and sanitisers;
• Based on the number of members in one family, giving them a certain amount of disposable cash to secure their daily needs, as the future still remains uncertain and dark;
• For providing regular legal and medical aid, checkups etc.;
• To provide other volunteers in the country working for the same cause, with all of the above; 
• And last but not the least, to bring smiles on the faces of such workers in distress. :)

Please come forward and help these people. Coronavirus has hit them the hardest. They need you. Each penny counts…. Together we can and we will make a difference!!!

I want to thank, in advance, each one of you who took out time to have a look at this initiative and contributed towards it…. This means a lot to us.

A BIGGGG THANK YOU!     

Contact

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