Chennai: On 24 March when the nation went into a complete lockdown, the survival of migrant labourers become a burning issue. Without jobs, proper shelter, money and no transportation to go back home, thousands were stranded.
Velacheri has a sizeable population of daily wagers and migrant labourers most of them employed in building construction sites, road works, domestic help and housekeeping at private companies. Many were homeless and needed food on daily basis.
M Balakrishnan, secretary of Tansi Nagar Welfare Association, sent out a text on the association’s WhatsApp group about the plan to provide food and essentials to the unemployed labourers. Initially the response was poor.
But eventually, the association provided meals twice a day for 51 days.
Balakrishnan says, ‘We started with 50 idlis on day one. We just had ten persons coming in for food. Soon seeing the need, more association members began making contributions. Soon we began serving 120 idlis and later with 200-odd people coming in for food, we began preparing 500 idlis. For lunch it was packets of Pongal.’
Balakrishnan said, he began preparing lists of essentials and people began contributing them.
Through this he handed over 200 kits to the needy living in Kallukuttai, VGP Selva Nagar, Bharathi Nagar and so on. Each kit costed around Rs 500.
He said that when he got close to 50th day, he was spending Rs 5,000 a day for serving breakfast and lunch.
‘The news spread through text messages and many of my friends abroad began contributing. I got donations from strangers too. We spent Rs 2 lakh for the food and additional money for the essential kits, immunity booster tonics, masks and sanitisers.’
In the past one and a half months, once in five days we distributed immunity booster tonic to those who came for the meals.
So, how has the food distribution gone and why did he end it? ‘We had to bring it to a stop due to dwindling contributions and the labourers were slowly going back to work. We stopped half-heartedly and many of them began crying after we broke the news to them. In fact, this morning some of them came asking for food and I got them essentials.’
Balakrishnan said the plight of migrant labourers are depressing. ‘They live in single room houses and come there only to sleep after working at construction site from 6 am to 7.30 pm. They were used to that life.’
He said that he had to educate the people about coronavirus, social distancing and proper hygiene needed during this time.
‘Every single day we read the news to those who gathered for food. We told them how each district was affected, how many lives were lost and how badly the virus was affecting people. We told them to wear masks and sit alone while eating and not in groups.
We made it clear that if they did not practise hygiene, one of the volunteers would get the disease and the food distribution would come to halt. People needed that kind of awareness, he added.
Balakrishnan is unsure about what lies ahead, but he is sure if one of them came back asking for food or essentials he will not send him back empty handed.
‘We saw them as our own brother and sisters and served food with love. We would have loved to do more,’ he concluded. He can be reached at 91766 01710.