Fear and anxiety have been Manasa Devi’s constant companions since lock down. Manasa Devi’s husband Murli Prasad is a daily-wager and they moved to Visakhapatnam from Uttar Pradesh along with their son in search of work over seven months ago. The family of three which runs on her husband’s earning live in a small room in Akkayapalem, one of the busiest localities in the Southern part of Visakhapatnam. The family is struggling to survive now. “We have been spending sleepless nights wondering about our finances. The landlord has been kind to us and allowed us to continue staying here without rent, but if the situation continues we are scared that we will soon have to vacate the place,” she says.

The only silver lining for Manasa Devi and her family has been the NGO Ken Foundation that has been providing food to them from the Shaadi Khana Shelther Home, from where the Foundation operates. But even that is not without its terrifying experience. Murli Prasad makes the harrowing 10-minute walk from their room to the Shaadi Khana Shelther Home, to get food. Says Manasa Devi, “I am scared every time he does that, wondering if he will come back home beaten up.” “He was beaten up once. But have no other option. We either risk our lives or we starve,” she says.

But the Foundation continues on its mission to feed the helpless migrants.

It was a tip-off from a shopkeeper in Akkayyapalem, that had the volunteers of Ken Foundation spring into action. They heard that over 200 migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh were stuck in the city and had no way of making ends meet. They understood how for the hundreds of migrant workers, who are thousands of miles away from their homes, the government’s guideline to stay indoors is a challenge. Most of them who depend on daily wages to survive are struggling, like Manasa Devi and her family.

Social organisations providing food packets at a shelter home created by Municipal Corporation for homeless and migrant workers in view of the lockdown in Visakhapatnam.   | Photo Credit: K_R_DEEPAK

Founder of Ken Foundation, Santosh Pulletykurty says the Foundation has taken on the challenge. “We did not want this to end up as another case of migrant workers walking miles to get back home. We read enough of that horrible struggle in the news. Most of them lived at construction sites where they worked as carpenters or masons. With the announcement of lockdown, they could neither stay at these sites nor travel back home. They were stranded struggling for food and shelter,” he says.

The Foundation swung into action,got in touch with the officials of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and took over the Shaadi Khana Shelter Home. Over 120 male labourers were accommodated here while 80 others, mostly women and children, were housed in another hall not too far. “We made two groups so that there was enough space for people to maintain a safe distance from each other. Beds are set three feet away from each other and our volunteers are doing their best to teach them social distancing. Government medical officers will soon be visiting the shelter to conduct tests on these workers,” says Santosh.

One of the labourers who live in this shelter is Rajiv Tiwari, from Basti, Uttar Pradesh. Rajiv says he has always been homeless in the city and has lived on the streets. He earned money as a daily wage painter, ate at roadside stalls and slept on pavements or the platforms of the railway station. After the lockdown, even those spaces became out of bounds for him. “Police shooed us away from everywhere. The small eateries that I frequented were closed and I starved for days,” he says.

The 32-year-old daily labourer has a wife and an infant son back home waiting for him. “I just want to go home and be with my family. But I don't think that is possible even after the lockdown is over as I'll have to continue working to afford a trip home. The little bit of savings that I had was spent buying food during the first three or four days of lockdown, I have no money on me now.”

Like Rajiv, there are over 100 workers from several parts of Uttar Pradesh stuck in Visakhapatnam who Ken Foundation is helping. Moti Lal, another daily wager from Gond, Uttar Pradesh who came to the city just 20 days ago has spent an entire week just looking for food. “I lived in a small room with four other labourers. As there was no facility to cook and we mostly ate at roadside stalls. From the day lockdown was announced we had no way of feeding ourselves. Finally, we learned about this shelter home and moved here since there is food,” he says.

The migrant labourers wait to find out what fate has in store for them next. Manasa Devi fervently hopes,“Once this is over, all we want is a little support from the government to go home and see our families.”