'We don’t get one square meal'
Frustrated migrant workers
refute govt claims of regular food supply
Many allege they get food rarely and sometimes it
is of poor quality
Tamil-speaking construction workers at a shanty in
Vasanthapura. (R) A woman shows a bowl of vegetable pulao donated by a
good Samaritan. She said the bowl was expected to last her husband and her for
lunch and dinner. DH Photos/Akhil Kadidal
Akhil Kadidal
Tamil-speaking construction workers at a shanty in
Vasanthapura. (R) A woman shows a bowl of vegetable pulao donated by a good
Samaritan in the area. She said the bowl was expected to last her and her
husband for lunch and dinner. DH Photos/Akhil Kadidal
Akhil Kadidal, Bengaluru, dhns
Migrant
workers have rejected the government’s claim that it is feeding all of them
along with the BPL card holders during the lockdown. Some of them have alleged
that they have not received any aid throughout the lockdown period.
Scores of
construction labourers and other workers at Vasanthapura (Ward 197) said they
were lucky to get one square meal a day. Shivamani (55), a construction
labourer from Raichur, said she, her sister and son — all of whom are daily
wage earners — received dry ration just twice in the past four weeks of the
lockdown from private donors. “Somebody gave us one kg sugar, one kg soap and
two kg of rice. But those supplies have run out and now we are dependent on
daily packaged meals,” she said.
The BBMP is
expected to distribute packaged meals once a day to the daily wage workers,
besides 21-day dry ration packs to migrants, while the department of labour
should be supplying packaged and cooked food to construction workers at least
once a day.
BBMP joint
commissioner Sarfaraz Khan, who has data on how many ration packets have been
distributed so far, did not respond to queries.
Corona
warriors
Cooked meals
are supposed to be supplied by the corona warriors (CWs), a 2,500-strong
city-wide group of volunteers started by the Department of Information and
Public Relations (DIPR). “Often, the food is never delivered,” explained a member
of the corona warriors, speaking anonymously.
Another CW
member in central Bengaluru, whose area has 299 surveyed
migrant workers, said the BBMP’s dry rations have never been supplied to the
workers in his ward, forcing NGOs to step in.
Waiting for
relief
Veerana, a
32-year-old construction labourer from Ballari who lives in
an encampment of 20 labourers and three children, said the cooked food
is sometimes of bad quality. “The police helped supply food at the start, but
it tasted bad, and we started refusing it. We were told that we would get a dry
ration pack so that we could prepare our own meals. But nothing has come,” he
said.
Though the
BBMP delivers milk, 30-year-old Renuka, a maid who lives in
another camp, said deliveries are erratic. With no BPL card and money running
low, Renuka said her family would like to inquire about matters in their native
village, but are unable to do so because all the phone recharge shops are
closed.
Trade union’s stand on the issue
Trade union groups and their volunteers, at the
forefront of feeding the construction workers, blamed hurdles like the police
impounding vehicles and shortage of food as reasons why they had to leave
thousands hungry. K R Jayaram from the Garment and Textile Workers’ Union
(GATWU), the trade union representative in-charge of feeding activities in the
west zone, said private donors and NGOs who were hitherto supplying food to
migrant workers have stopped due to lack of funds.
“These workers are completely dependent on us and
the government. Our volunteers are doing our best. On an average, we dole out
13,000
government-sourced food packets everyday — during lunchtime and dinner — in
15-20 wards falling within the area of Mysuru Road. But the numbers of packaged
meals fall short of orders,” he said.
