Dear supporters of the migrant Indians
Last week, we updated you on the urgent re-purposing of Safe in India and Manzil teams and our Rs One Crore donation campaign to jointly and quickly jump into serving the immediate needs of migrant worker populations in the under-services parts of Manesar, Gurgaon, where we have been active for three years.
This Report is to update you the first week progress (video and details below):
PLEASE DONATE(ongoing Rupees One Crore campaign):
Indian passport-holders paying from their Rupee accounts/cards: www.safeinindia.org/donate
Foreign passport holders, foreign currency payers: https://manzil.funraise.org/
1. "यहाँ कौन आता है": We identified micro-communities with c.700 families (2000+ adults/children) who are somewhat remote and are yet not as well supported. Mainly in and around 11 villages of Aliyar, Basgaon, Bhangrola, Kakrola, Kasan, Khoh, Manesar, Naharpur, Nawada, Dhana, Basai- Kadipur, Gurugram- Sirhaul, Khandsa, Bawal, Binola and Dharuhera.
2. "बस पेट भर दो": We distributed dry rations to them (mostly in packs for 10 days per adult consisting of rice, daal, oil, spices, salt, sugar, tea, biscuits, soap, etc). Total quantity distributed is adequate for 1,000+ adults for 10 days (ie 10,000+ adult food units).
As of now, we prefer distributing dry rations over cooked food as we believe that they need security of several days of food rather than waiting to queue up for (often unpredictable) cooked food in varying quantities every day. We think it is also better for their dignity and independence to cook their own food. However, good balanced cooked food is important for its nutrition value, and we will add that flexibly as the need arises.
3. "वो पानी के पाँच सौ रुपये माँग रहा है": Many areas have started witnessing shortage of water too, as they depended on water tankers and either they are short of cash to pay or the suppliers/drivers are demanding extra cash. We will be supplying water too in the coming weeks where needed.
4. We are keeping local authorities (DC's office, Sarpanch, etc) engaged and informed to ensure as much coordination as possible. There are the usual challenges in this and we are doing our best. 5. We are also identifying themes and highlighting them to the government bodies as appropriate formally and informally. As of now, salary payments to contract workers this week, as per government guidelines, are critical. And the government should also start carefully phasing many of them back to villages where farmers need them for harvesting. Please push these everywhere. More next week, when we aim to serve another 10-15,000 such adult units (potentially including cooked food) in these areas. Please help us help them better. This is going to be several months of effort as some of these desperate (and bored) workers may leave town once the lock-down lifts, and others may come in for jobs and may not have the resources to re-establish themselves for some time. We will need to remain flexible to changing needs and changing government guidelines at central and state levels. Partners to support are also welcome in areas of sourcing, logistics and last mile distribution. Please do send us any thought/feedback/suggestions at team@safeinindia.org.
Together with you supporting Indian migrant workers...for now and for their return to employment.
Team Safe in India-Manzil
DONATE PORTALS (please donate generously and spread the word):
Indian passport-holders paying from their Rupee accounts/cards: www.safeinindia.org/donate
Foreign passport holders, foreign currency payers: https://manzil.funraise.org/