#iStandWithHumanity launched to support daily wage earners
Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on humanity worldwide. India, too, is facing the wrath of this virus and the daily wage earners across the different industries are bearing the brunt. In an attempt to protect their livelihood, filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, on behalf of the television and film fraternity, and Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar’s The International Association for Human Values and The Art of Living, have launched the #iStandWithHumanity campaign to encourage people to come forward and donate towards protecting the livelihood of daily wage earners during the trying times of this pandemic.
A source close to the filmmaker shares, “Rajkumar Hirani knows how a lockdown could affect the daily wage workers, economically. When a film is being made, more than 2,000 daily wage workers are on the job and that is where they earn their bread from.”
The initiative aims to support the families of the daily wage earners, who are known as the backbone of an industry, with ten days of essential food supplies. It requires an individual to sponsor a bag of ration worth ₹1,000. This could be donated online and comes as a great relief to all those whose work and livelihood has been affected.
At a time when the entire nation is fighting the outbreak, the worst-hit in the industry are the production crews as it has caused the shutdown of films, TV and OTT productions until further notice. According to the fraternity and the foundations, they are the ones who are suffering the most, economically. This initiative pays tribute to their efforts.
“Though we all know the lockdown is inevitable right now to curb the pandemic, Hirani really wanted to make sure that the households of these daily wage earners across the nation and across various industries keeps running. It is a major financial hit for them and they are the worst hit. Hence, he extended his support to the initiative #iStandWithHumanity and urges everyone to do so. He is all for this noble cause and this initiative would definitely be a big help to these workers,” the source adds.
On March 17, the Producers Guild of India issued a statement where Siddharth Roy Kapur, president of the Guild, urged the members of
RAJKUMAR HIRANI LAUNCHED THE CAMPAIGN TO ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO DONATE TOWARDS PROTECTING THE LIVELIHOOD OF DAILY WAGE EARNERS the film fraternity to contribute to a relief fund to “minimise the disruption in the lives” of workers in the film industry.