When the nationwide lockdown began in March 2020, transport stopped. Migrant workers had to leave the cities where they worked and set out for home on foot, with no arrangements for food or shelter on the way.
The Trust’s national president Dr Arunesh Yadav and general secretary Dr Hemendra Kumar, with members of the Trust, decided to help directly on the ground.
The first weeks in Noida and Ghaziabad
Two teams — one for Ghaziabad, one for Noida — served meals every day at noon and in the evening: at three places in Ghaziabad and four or five in Noida. Members also took rations and food into slum settlements. In Ghaziabad, district president Kishan Pal Yadav led the distribution of food and essentials to migrant workers and local families; in Gautam Buddh Nagar, district president Uday Veer Singh Yadav organised food for the workers passing through Noida.
Uday Veer Singh Yadav had already acted as the lockdown began. About 200 workers lived in his houses or worked in small factories nearby; he waived two months’ rent, and with the help of the administration arranged 40 to 50 buses on 23 March that took about 2,000 people home to their districts in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.
Free kitchens, rations and medicines
Meals were cooked fresh every day and packed for delivery. In Noida a free kitchen ran for 22 days at Behlolpur and Chotpur colony, and Trust lifetime member Sushil Yadav, deputy secretary of the Federation of Noida Residents Welfare Associations, ran its kitchen, which prepared about 2,000 meals a day. Families also received dry rations — flour, dal, rice, sugar and salt — along with fruit, vegetables, medicines, masks and sanitiser.
The work reached Vaishali, Kaushambi, Indirapuram, Sahibabad, Govindpuram, Sanjay Nagar, Raj Nagar Extension and Loni in Ghaziabad; Khoda, Mamura, Behlolpur, Garhi Chaukhandi, Sector 59 and Greater Noida in Gautam Buddh Nagar; and Delhi and Gurugram, where senior adviser Rao Sajjan Singh Yadav arranged food and essentials for 1,000 people a day.
On the highways
In May, as workers walked into Uttar Pradesh, the Trust’s district teams fed them on the road. Vice-president Amit Yadav distributed food to migrants in Firozabad district, and with Madhur Yadav organised food and water on the Lucknow–Agra Expressway at the Agra, Mainpuri, Etawah, Firozabad and Kannauj cuts. Ghazipur district president Ashish Kumar Yadav fed workers on the Ghazipur highway. In Agra, Trust adviser Sanjeev Yadav handed out masks, sanitiser and ration kits of rice, flour, potatoes, dal, spices and cooking oil.
Reported week by week
Newspapers followed the relief through its third, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth weeks — the last report covering 31 May to 6 June 2020. Afterwards the Trust thanked more than thirty people and organisations who had served through the pandemic with its Covid-19 Distinguished Service Honour.
Thank you to our supporters
The relief was possible because of members and supporters including Rishi Yadav (Etawah), Shri Raj Bahadur Singh (Banda), Shri Suryakant Yadav (Resham Tyres, Noida), Manoj Yadav, Ravindra Yadav (Roorkee), Dr Rajiv Kumar (Prayagraj) and many others.
See the photos from the relief work →
Read the full COVID-19 report (Hindi, PDF) (opens in a new tab)
