Swara Bhasker helps migrant workers reach home

Swara Bhaskar has joined the list of celebrities who are helping migrants reach their home in the time of crisis.

Swara Bhaskar reached Delhi from Mumbai last week and started her initiative there to help the migrant workers stranded in Delhi to return to their homes. Swara has successfully facilitated the travel of 1350 distressed migrant workers to their homes in UP and Bihar, by arranging train tickets for them.

Swara began her initiative to help the migrants with the support of the Delhi government. She coordinated with her team who personally collected the data of people who wanted to return to their homes, she provided people with footwears as many walked to their homes even without footwear.

I’m very grateful to @ActionShoes & #AthleoShoes who‘ve kindly contributed 500 pairs of shoes toward migrant relief efforts. These were distributed by on-ground @karwanemohabbat volunteers. Deep gratitude again to Vishesh Agrawal, SK Sharma & Shaival Sahay #notanad #notsponsored pic.twitter.com/GXQGuHBvCU

— Swara Bhasker (@ReallySwara) May 25, 2020

In an interview, Swara said that she had to start this initiative because she felt “ashamed” sitting at her comfort when lakhs of migrant workers are being forced into destitution and hardships to even get to their homes. She said that the guilt feeling was what pulled her out of her residence to help the stranded migrants.

She thanked Aam Aadmi Party MLA Dilip Pandey for helping her initiative. “I am so grateful to Dilip Pandey ji, his team, the Delhi Government and everyone working on the ground. They reaffirm my faith in our society,” Swara said, adding she was “only amplifying their efforts” through her social media platform. “It’s really nothing much,” she said.

Swara termed the whole migrant crisis as  “the most shameful incident of our times” which “exposes so many structural defects in our system and the dark reality of our society”.

Swara’s said that her work has been inspired by a lot of people who have been working for helping migrant workers on the ground, organisations like Karwaan-E-Mohabbat, Khalsa Aid, Pushti Foundation and individuals like Sonu Sood.

Since the country wide lockdown due to the coronavirus started, Sonu Sood has been arranging busses, providing food for thousands of stranded migrants. And recently he has also airlifted 177 migrant workers stuck in Kerala amid the coronavirus lockdown. The actor arranged a special chartered flight for women helping them to return to Odisha. Sonu Sood is widely praised by bollywood stars as well as civilians.

Foundations like these and individuals like Sonu Sood have inspired many other celebrities, who are now helping distressed migrant workers reach their home. Celebrity Chef Vikas Khanna has been providing food to millions of people amidst the lockdown, celebrity director Farah Khan has also joined hands with Vikas Khanna and has facilitated the women migrants with Sanitary napkins, Rakul Preet Singh adopted a slum with 250 families and is providing them with 2 meals a day, and Amitabh Bacchan among many others arranged 10 busses for UP migrants to return home.

She has starred in many bollywood movies like ‘veere di wedding’, ‘Nil battey sannata’, and ‘Ranjhanaa’ among others.