Initiatives and Responses to Migrant Workers during the Lockdown

Abstract

This narrative describes an initiative of the National Service Scheme team at Andhra Loyola Institute of Engineering and Technology. It highlights initiatives to address the situation of migrant workers during the pandemic lockdown in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India. In the Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh, migrant laborers were forced to walk home, sometimes hundreds, even thousands of kilometers, to reunite with their families. It was hard to ignore these images, especially those who carried the elderly on their shoulders, and small children slumped over rolling suitcases. Most used any means of transport they found, even bicycles. Some succumbed to accidents and exposure to heat. In the midst of the lockdown, the NSS team quickly came together and planned an outreach/relief camp for migrants in Krishna District. It was chosen since many villagers were migrants and the lockdown had affected in multiple ways. The relief camp took place in the month of April, a time when temperatures soar in southern India. The students and the faculty members joined hands to reach out to the Migrants in the most despairing moments. The students commented that they saw their education from a different perspective, one that integrated curriculum and good citizenship for marginalized persons. One of the ways of infusing relevance into education is to embed it within meaningful service learning. This paper is an attempt to exhibit the Initiative and Responses to the Migrant workers during the Lockdown.