Helping migrants during a crisis

water conservation in Bundelkhand districts across both states, approached the authorities with an offer to help. His volunteers —many of whom themselves had migrant family members — would have no problem in managing the crowd, Singh told the officers. As the crowd multiplied on the border, the Datia and Jhansi district administrations gave a green signal to Singh to set up a kitchen near the border at of these two districts, to distribute food and water among the migrants. He also set up a help desk to guide migrants to buses and shelter homes as well as transport those exhibiting symptoms to health centres.

“The volunteers ran the community kitchen and the help desk till the end of May. They took the assistance of local residents of these districts, including adjoining Lalitpur in Uttar Pradesh, as well as traders and farmers who supplied grains and edible items to run the kitchen,” Singh said.

Singh also ensured that the group of 18 volunteers wore personal protective gear as well as distributed masks and sanitizers among the migrants many of whom had returned from hotspots like Mumbai, Surat and Indore.

From March 27 to the first week of June, around 3.5 million migrant workers have returned to Uttar Pradesh of which 1 million were from Bundelkhand’s districts of Jhansi, Lalitpur, Jaluan, Hamirpur, Banda, Mahoba and Chitrakoot. A majority of them have little money and no source of employment other than the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme (MNREGS). In Uttar Pradesh, already 2.5 million migrants have applied for new job cards under the scheme, but till mid-june, 1 million were yet to receive them.

In June, Singh also began to motivate returned migrants to work in water conservation schemes and created awareness on the need for preservation, if the workers did not wish to migrate again.