Coronavirus outbreak: Langars feed Bhiwandi's fasting loom workers

Thousands of migrants working in the power looms at Bhiwandi set out on foot for their villages hundreds of kilometres away earlier this week While these migrants face an enormously difficult journey with almost zero resources those who have stayed back are also on the brink of starvationThe Maharashtra government has been assuring of help for migrant workers should they stay back amid the COVID19caused lockdown Though the BhiwandiNizampur City Municipal Corporation BNCMC is offering food packets the power loom workers say the quality of the food is inferiorThe municipality has been giving khichdi for 15 days and the ingredients are rice and turmeric powder Sometimes they mix vegetables in it But the food quality is absolutely inferior it cannot be eaten by any human being Being a labourer does not mean that we will eat toxic food The food smells and makes us nauseous said Manzar Alam a native of BiharIt is the month of Ramzan and most of us are fasting But after eating bad quality food some of us vomited and had to break the fast said Alam adding that power loom owners are not helping either and that many are breaking their fast only with waterThe power loom owner does not respond to our calls He either switches off his mobile phone or blocks our number said Mohammad Sahid a native of Ambedkar Nagar district Uttar PradeshRaw ration only for state residentsAnother power loom worker Jalaluddin Ansari said workers get food once a day We have not been given raw ration by the state government In this crisis we have to wait in long queues for langar distributed by social workers said AnsariThere are seven lakh registered power looms in BhiwandiThere was a queue of nearly 200 workers on Monday By the time my turn came food was over So I rushed to another langar halfakilometre away and stood in another queue But here too the food finished said Ansari who did not eat anything on MondayOn Tuesday I got food but it was not very little This is the reality of many workers who did not dare to walk home The state government is providing raw ration to only those who are from Maharashtra We are not given any ration said Ansari whose coworkers Abdul Ali and Mohammad Younus echoed his viewsWorkers say they are being given khichdi the ingredients of which are usually rice and turmeric mdash in the food packet for the past 15 daysA few workers from Jharkhand Bihar and Uttar Pradesh tried to go home in a truck recently A truck driver agreed to transport us to our native place He took R2500 from each worker We started our journey a few days ago but police at Karjat stopped the vehicle and caned the driver badly We were forced to return to hell with no food said AliNearly 3000 workers rushed to the State Transport bus depot in Bhiwandi on Tuesday midday spoke to a few of them and asked if they had any idea about when they would return to Bhiwandi to resume work Humlogo ke paas aur kya hai kamane ke liye said Yashpal a native of Faizabad in Uttar PradeshIt is a pandemic and the whole world is reeling under a financial crisis We dont know what will happen to us as I have heard that big companies are downsising We are not sure if the owners of power looms will downsize too said SahilA ray of lightThere is confusion among workers regarding how and where they can get registered to travel home in trains However a power loom owner Parvez Alam Ansari has been helping his employeesI have told my workers not to panic I have been providing them with ration vegetables etc and they have been preparing meals for themselves The power loom is shut but these workers are our assets I cannot afford to keep them stranded amid a crisis Ansari saidCivic bodys help mismanagedThere are seven lakh registered power looms employing around three to four lakh migrant labourers As per our estimate more than one lakh people want to leave the city as they dont have work and are not getting food We are doing our best to provide food but its been more than a month now and the assistance provided by the local corporation is mismanaged Now our priority is to help those who want to go to their home states such as Uttar Pradesh which is not cooperating with Maharashtra said local MLA Rais ShaikhWe resolved all complaintsAccording to Pravin Ashtikar the chief of BNCMC initially there were a lot of complaints regarding food quality and its supply but all have been resolved We are not denying that complaints were received from people but I must tell you that we listen to them and now things have improved in the past week There have been no complaints about the food as far as quality and supply are concerned There are several NGOs working with us and we are supplying 80000 food packets daily The migrants who want to leave just want to go home because the lockdown has been extended Most of the migrants have been taken care of by us and their employers said AshtikarAshtikar added that so far there are 20 cases of Coronavirus in Bhiwandi city of which two have recovered and 290 are in institutional quarantine We started preparing for COVID19 in the second week of march mdash we procured equipment for disinfecting and started sanitising the area much in advance As you see the result all positive cases in Bhiwandi have come from other areas We have successfully stopped community transmission despite a high population Currently Bhiwandi has a population of over 8 lakh We started doortodoor screening last week targeting the most vulnerable people and 75 per cent of the survey is complete So far 1011 people are found to be vulnerable as they are suffering from other ailments and we are taking care of them Ashtikar added80KFood packets Bhiwandi civic body claims it is providingCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and a complete guide from food to things to do and events across Mumbai Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates MidDay is now on Telegram Click here to join our channel 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