Covid -19 Relief work in Ashalaya, Bangalore

India’s move to put the country under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately hurt the informal sector. Right from the start, the fight against COVID-19 has caused suffering to the poor. Worst of all was the lack of anticipation that without work, savings or food, migrant workers and their families would want, and attempt to rush home. When the rush could no longer be ignored, it still took five weeks to announce the resumption of trains. When the train resumed, it was observed that hundreds of migrants would gather in front of police stations every day without food or water waiting to get their train tickets to their native states. There were millions of Indians trudging across hundreds of kilometers- some even losing their lives in the attempt to get back home have brought forth the severity of the ruthless lockdown. It’s only now, with the images we see everywhere, that many people in the country have begun to see and understand the sheer number of migrants and the difficulties they had to undergo during the lockdown.

In spite of the announcement of the easing of the lockdown, industries are yet to function. The daily waged laborers have deteriorated. They do not have any buying power and were in dire need of continued assistance to prevent starvation. Many of the migrants chose not to return to their native states because they had to undergo forced quarantine on crossing state boarders and also face problems like being prevented from entering their villages by the locals for fear of spreading the virus which resulted in many of them staying back.

because of the timely support provided by our benefactors to be able to reach out to migrants and daily waged labourers during the COVID-19 lock down.