Help Corona Displaced Daily Wage Workers in India

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"Hunger will kill us, before the virus does" - These are the words of a daily wage labourer in India, echoed by thousands more like him, who, due to the lockdown, are suddenly devoid of an income and have absolutely no food in the house as there is no wage to buy the food. These are the poorest of poor in India, who rely on their hard work every single day. Lockdown has taken away their meagre daily wages and pushed them into the darkness of hunger and fear.

Corona Virus has brought about many un-precedented emergencies . Apart from the global battle with the virus, we are also in the midst of a battle with hunger, in the poorest of the poor all over the world.

The crisis has come to a head in India due to the lockdown. The daily wage earners, like labourers, food vendors, road-side hawkers, auto-rickshaw drivers, vegetable sellers, house cleaners , private transport drivers, factory workers, staff with temp jobs, delivery boys and many many more have been completely thrown off the cart, without food or money.

They are battling fear, anxiety, meagre rations at home and absolutely no wage to buy any more supplies.

Many of them have been thrown out of their houses as they cannot pay the rent any more. The double whammy of losing their earnings and losing the roof over their heads has hit this section of the population in the worst possible manner.

Its like being kicked in the gut and then being thrown into a dark abyss that is deeper than the deepest mile.

Where will they go?
What will they eat?
Where will they sleep?
Where will they wash up or even go to the toilet?
What about the little hungry mouths that they need to feed?

Their little ones and young ones, daughters and sons are hungry. The old and disabled members of their family, who depend on them are hungry. They are afraid of the future. They are afraid of contracting Corona. They have no disinfectants to clean their hands and no money to buy soaps. They have no masks or anything that will protect them. Their battle is with hunger and fear of Corona virus.

When our kids do not eat a meal, we are beyond anxious. Here are these displaced millions whose children have not eaten a morsel for days in a row. The government is making efforts to handle the crisis but India is a large country with a huge population. It is not a country where one can apply for social security payments or unemployment money. There is nothing a poor person in India can fall back on, except loans from the loan sharks - and even those at this point are actually useless due to the lockdown.

The crisis is vast and involves hungry, tired, worried people who are running afraid of life and death.

Yes, right now, they are afraid of living and they are afraid of dying.

I need your help.

I need your help to raise funds, for us to be able to support those who are doing the work on the ground and feeding as many families as they can. I need you to support me to help those who are helping the displaced workers and their families by providing them with food rations to run their lives for a few more days.

I need you to understand that 1 GBP or 1 EURO or 1 DOLLAR or 100 Rupees you spare today, would hold a far bigger value in these circumstances. This money will actually be sufficient to buy rice, lentils, potatoes and some vegetables for at least 2 people to last them 2 to 3 days.

10 GBP/Euros/Dollars will actually help procure grains and lentils for a small family to sustain them for 5-8 days.

Right now, all I can think of doing is this. I cannot travel back to work on the ground in India. I cannot send any food parcels from here and even if I could, logistically it would not make any sense.

I, just like so so many of us, am overwhelmed and distraught at their plight, misery and fear. I am afraid to think how helpless and scared their thoughts are, at this point

During this unforeseen lockdown, we have houses to shelter us and beds to sleep on. We have food on the table. Even if the supplies are low, we know we can buy more. We are safe in the knowledge that we can sanitize our hands and life and get past this crisis that COVID has caused.

And then there are these families, who are walking miles, hungry and thirsty, running terrified to their villages for safety because they hope that they will find food and shelter there.

Please help me, help them.

I have identified people on ground, in India, who are reaching out to these distraught families and providing them with rations to tide over these scary times. But these kind hearted people have limited resources. They are using their own funds to feed 100s of families, which they will be able to do only for a few days or weeks, until their own resources run out.

This is where WE come in. We can gather funds and support a few (if not many) of these wonderful human beings and provide sustenance for the displaced daily wageworkers and migrant labourers. We can help them with funds to buy the rations and support a few hundred families or may be more over a period of time.

Please find the generosity within you to donate as little or as much as you can to this cause. I am holding myself responsible for our donations to reach those hungry stomachs or babies, the elderly and the tired.

The goal-amount of the fund will be changed if there is enough support to this endeavour. Right now I am going to have it at a bare minimum and see how far we go.

Please help them – they have been dealt a terribly rough hand and we need to step up and step in.