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Highlights Of Rebuilding Lives Telethon: A Campaign To Rehabilitate Migrant Workers Affected By Coronavirus Lockdown
Around 40 million migrant daily-waged workers have been hit hard by the lockdown imposed in the wake of COVID-19. Rebuilding Lives is an action-oriented campaign by American India Foundation (AIF) in partnership with NDTV to rebuild the lives of migrant communities. The need of the hour is for immediate relief to serve urgent needs, equal attention is required towards a sustainable and resilient rebuilding of lives through a multi-pronged response, addressing health, education and livelihoods.
Here are the highlights of the #RebuildingLives Telethon:
Anil Swarup, Former School Education & Literacy Secretary to Government of India
It's a very tricky situation, unprecedented but it can be tackled, it is being tackled in some of the states. We had to segment these set of children into two parts; the first is of children that have access to internet and smartphones, the strategy for them will be different from the children who do not have access to smartphone or internet.
The difficult part with such children as do not have access to internet and smartphones. It is there that we had organised a workshop about 15 days ago to evolve methods through which we reach out to them. The penetration of internet is not so good but I think the penetration of radio, through television is pretty good. And it is through radio and television that a number of states are attempting to reach out to these children. There are other ways also that are being worked out to reach out to children. Of course as I said they can't replace the teacher but this is the alternative that is available.
Around 40 million migrant daily-waged workers have been hit hard by COVID-19 induced economic distress, lockdowns, travel bans and social distancing requirements. As they reach home enduring unprecedented ordeals, they face the risk of hunger, indebtedness and prolonged unemployment.
Their families face high infection risk and their children, particularly girls, the loss of learning.
While the need of the hour is for immediate relief to serve urgent needs, equal attention is required towards a sustainable and resilient rebuilding of lives through a multi-pronged response, addressing health, education and livelihoods needs - both in the source and destination areas of migration.
This crisis has also shown us the spirit of our community. We are truly inspired by the way citizens, non-profits, corporates and the government have come together to help those in need. As first responders, American India Foundation (AIF) has served 272,000 people across 16 states of India and has now joined hands with NDTV to raise awareness and resources to complement the government’s efforts to rehabilitate migrant families.
Serve immediate and urgent needs of migrant communities, especially women and girls, with a focus on migration affected states
Emergency Relief:
- Address immediate needs of migrants through food, hygiene essentials/unconditional money transfers
Livelihoods & Income Generation:
- At least one member of a migrant household acquires a fresh skill/get upskilled and gain livelihood to increase household income
Public Health:
- Protect and train community health workers (CHW) on pandemic preparedness and using digital tools
- Support vulnerable communities in protecting themselves from Covid-19
Education:
- Bridge the educational and digital divide through techno-pedagogy and virtual learning in government schools in a Covid-safe environment
- Ensure continuity of education and remediation in community settings especially for young girls and adolescents