With the fourth phase of the national lockdown in place and #Lockdown5 trending on social media as we inch closer to May 31, people haven’t given up on trying to reach home. A lot of us who work or study in a different city have been stranded as flights weren’t operating. But on May 25, when domestic flights started again, a lot of people could finally reach home. Unfortunately, the lakhs of stranded migrants workers can’t afford that option. They’ve been walking hundreds of kilometres carrying their flock from city to city. Every day there are news reports of migrants workers getting killed in road and train accidents. Then came help.
After Sonu Sood, who has been actively helping the migrant workers get home by arranging buses for their travels, feeding them on the streets, and setting up a toll-free helpline number (1800-12-13-711) for them, Swara Bhasker is another Bollywood celebrity to step up and do her bit. In an interview with Times Now, Swara said, “At a time when lakhs of people are out on the streets, facing extreme hardship, I feel ashamed sitting at home. This crisis has exposed the defects in our system.”
Swara has sent 1,350 migrant workers till now from Delhi to their homes in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. She, along with her team, collected names of the workers who wanted to go home and coordinated with the Delhi Government to make sure they get their train tickets. In fact, before this, Swara arranged for the distribution of “500 pairs of shoes toward migrant relief efforts” who have been walking non-stop to get home barefoot. She called the ongoing migrant crisis “the most severe human impact story of our time” in her post on Instagram and Twitter.
In times like these, all we can do is rely on the goodness of humankind and help each other out however we can. Swara and Sonu are setting a great example by helping those who can’t help themselves. Way to go!
Featured Image: Instagram