West Bengal youth helps nearly 7,000 migrant workers return home

All they had was a laptop and an internet connection. With this three youths from West Bengal’s Birbhum district have created a huge database of contact numbers of Government officials. They used it to help nearly 7,000 migrant workers from Bengal to return to their home state when they got stranded due to the nationwide lockdown. They ensured that about 1 lakh migrant workers are provided food by respective state governments.

It all started about two years ago when Sadekul Islam, a resident of Birhum’s Kashimnagar village, saw hundreds of people standing in queue for hours to get Aadhaar cards. Then it struck Islam, an IT professional, to get directly in touch with top government officials to resolve the issue.

The issue of inadequate number of Aadhaar enrollment centres in the area was finally resolved after Islam approached top Central government officials including those in the PMO.

Then within a couple of days after the lockdown was announced Islam got a call from some stranded migrant workers from the Amta area in Howrah district. He and his friends swung into action and called up district officials who arranged a temporary accommodation for then till they can return home.

“ I knew there was lakhs and lakhs of such stranded workers across the country. So along with two my friends Noor Alam and Nasiruddin Ansari I set up a temporary office at a local club to assist such workers,” said Islam.

Whether its some migrant worker struggling pay rent in Maharashtra or not getting treatment in Jharkhand Islam and his friend worked tirelessly to help them. He also assisted migrant workers stranded in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand.

At least 4,000 migrant workers from Islam’s own village was stranded in Kerala. He got a pleasant surprised when two MLAs from Kerala readily agreed to help them when approached. “ All we had to do is send the location, number of workers and contact numbers to the MLAs and rest was done by them,” said Islam.

However, his experience was not that pleasant with some government officials who didn’t cooperate and even blocked his calls ans messages.