KISMAT (Kerala Interstate Migrants Alliance for Transformation), project of Don Bosco BREADS Bangalore in partnership with Don Bosco Veedu Trivandrum working for the welfare of the Guest workers in Kerala joined hands with the Labour, Health and police department across the state to cater to the needs of the Migrant in the state.
The Covid-19 has brought the world to a standstill locus. The impact of this pandemic was so huge that even the so-called developed countries had to bend their knee at this microorganism that shuts the world down. The failure to develop a vaccine against this pandemic has led to a prevention of spread of this disease by a complete lock down across the globe. This unforeseen attack of the virus and the subsequent inadvertent lockdown led the people to an antagonistic situation that seemed to crumble down their dreams.
In the phase of a sudden shut down many of the migrants were caught up in different pockets of the state without proper food and movement restrictions. KISMAT team operating in 11 the districts of Kerala, had alerted the govt. about the predicament in which the guest workers are in and the state govt. immediately responded with opening of 4603 residential camps for the migrants .It was indeed a boon for the guest workers. KISMAT worked hand in hand with labour and police departments to reach out to those caught up migrants in different places and brought them back to the residential camps of the govt. All our multilingual staff members were given the assignments of convincing these guest workers to move to the govt. camps for safety. We also had to communicate to them the seriousness of this Covid-19 deadly pandemic disease.
According to a statement issued by KISMAT, it read, "In a lockdown situation where the whole attention was given on Covid 19 care, many of the hospitals turned out to be Covid-19 treatment hospitals with isolation procedure. As a result people with other sickness could not approach the hospital for proper treatment. It had its great impact on the migrants. In this predicament we have joined hands with the Health Department of Kerala to organize medical camps in different parts of the state. We have conducted 106 camps across the state. We distributed 4000 face masks in different camps with the support of sponsors. KISMAT Thrissur team did the camps with the help of the police and doctors."
The most egregious aspect of this pandemic attack and subsequent lockdown was that it affected the lower-strata of the working class that constituted the vast majorly of the labour force in Kerala. In particular, it affected the life of the guest worker in a large scale. At this juncture we need to mention the laudable service of the state government of Kerala towards this most vulnerable section of our society. In wake of Covid-19, the Kerala State govt. has been taking protective steps to ensure the welfare of the guest workers in the state. They have opened 4603 residential camps for the guest worker with community kitchens to make sure the food supply across the state. The other measures that the Govt. has undertaken are health screening camps and setting up help desks to allay their concerns. The state government has also been issuing posters, making announcements and video messages in various languages, including Assamese, Odiya, Hindi and Bengali, among others, to sensitise the guest workers on the deadly COVID-19 and the importance of social distancing and cleanliness.
