India is nearing the end of COVID 19 lockdown 3.0. Approximately 80 million migrants are walking home on their own. For the poor and the migrant, it continues to be about survival: no jobs, incomes and even food in some places. Their immediate and sole concern is getting back home to a sense of emotional security; where, hopefully, they are not treated like cattle just because they are from a different state.
From 25 March to 14 April 2020, when the nation was thrown without warning into the chaos of lockdown 1.0, it was the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Don Bosco, who leaped to the rescue of the poor and stranded across India. These NGOs across the country, fed the poor and penniless, sheltered the stranded, provided reassurance and preventive education.
With its immense reach, the Don Bosco Network consisting of 354 Institutions, registered as NGOs across the states of India, fed 1,082,446 people either through cooked food or grocery kits (145,822) to date. They manufactured and distributed 410,375 masks to people who otherwise have no access. Because of their vast experience on the ground over decades, they knew who would be most impacted and went there quickly. Now it is a great challenge to make the hungry, cashless millions of migrants to reach home.
Don Bosco Solidarity provided food, ration kits, hygiene kits, shelter and transport where possible to stranded migrants and daily wage workers people. It provided medical aid, health camps and psychological services wherever needed. The Don Bosco’ network of institutions reached out to refugees and people living in slums and on the streets, providing food and awareness about COVID 19. The network has supported the government infrastructure through funds and supplying heath workers, police and other government personnel with protective face masks. Don Bosco NGOs have partnered brilliantly with the local administration in many places to coordinate relief work for the maximum benefit.
The massive quantum of relief work that Don Bosco managed during these past months is not sustainable without funding. As economic uncertainty clouds the world’s horizon and jobs disappear, NGOs such as the Don Bosco network also have to find different ways to help already-marginalized people such as the poor and migrants, cope with these long-term challenges while supporting them in the short term.
BOSCONET, Don Bosco Network-South Asia