Good things happen: How 2 young journalists became messiah for migrants?
Both the freelance journalists are helping the migrants by booking tickets to their homes
Ramandeep Kaur and Gargi Chauhan, two freelance journalists are helping the stranded migrant workers at New Delhi station to reach their home by booking their train tickets and arranging buses. Even after Shramik Special trains, NGO’s buses and other aids, still there are many migrant workers who have not been able to reach their homes. Ramandeep’s team along with other NGOs are also taking care of the food they need during the journey.
How Ramandeep came up with the mission to help the people?
Ramandeep came up with the idea of helping migrants after watching a BBC News report that showed that many people were stranded at the New Delhi Railway station as they didn’t have money to go to their home. “After understanding the challenges of those migrant labourers, I asked my friends to do something for these people.” She pitched the idea to Gargi about collecting some money amongst their friend circle and helping the poor migrants. “Gargi agreed and we created a message and asked other friends to help. These friends asked their friends to donate the money and gradually with this word of mouth we created a chain,” said Ramandeep while talking to us.
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She added, “I and Gargi went to New Delhi Railway Reservation Center. We saw many helpless people waiting for some Messiah to come help them. I booked tickets from my IRCTC account on the first day. Later, through contacts, we managed to get in touch with a ticket agent who started helping us in booking tickets for the migrants. We also used window ticketing services to buy tickets for them. People were really helpless, someone had a funeral to attend to, someone wanted to see the faces of their children, some just wanted to escape the city chaos and reach their hometown thousands of kilometres away to meet their family and have a slice of bread.”
The team has helped more than 250 individuals so far
Ramandeep and Gargi’s team which includes Manish Vishwakarma (music composer), Shalu Sangwan (Intern Lawyer), Vidisha Lata (Interior Designer), Vijay Akshit (Freelance Content Writer) and Vikas Mishra (Accountant) are working almost 9 hours every day to make sure that they could help as many people as they can. So far, the team has helped more than 400 individuals in safely reaching their homes. Their team has collected approx Rs 2,00,000 as donations so far from more than 85 individuals who have contributed as low as Rs 50. Ramandeep and Gargi’s good deed has helped migrants reach their homes in different states of the country such as Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam and more.
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Once the two freelance journalists started the mission to support the poor and helpless, many kind people and NGO’s came to assist them. Preeti, a student came to help with food donations. NGO’s like Migrant Travel, Jan Man and United Sikhs are helping them with bus arrangements and food. Goonj might also join the good cause of Ramandeep and Gargi.
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