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We three, Swapnaneel Dey, Adhiraj Singh, Siddhant Agarwal, students of Shriram Millennium School, Noida, studying in class 12, have felt it necessary to provide aid to the unemployed workers of Assam and the people displaced due to the cyclone in West Bengal.
Coronavirus has affected all humans unequivocally irrespective of their social status’s however none have been more affected than the labour force of Assam and the people displaced by the super cyclone in West Bengal.
Assam is a state which is renowned for the quality of tea supplied by it and the credit for the supreme quality is deserved by none more than the thousands of workers who spend countless hours toiling on the numerous tea plantations in the state. The sad truth, however, is that the wages of these hardworking individuals are never sufficient. For example, before COVID 19, the tea garden workers in Brahmaputra Valley in Assam were getting a daily wage of Rs. 167 per day while the tea garden workers in Barak Valley were getting a wage of Rs. 145 per day. These prices are much less than the Rs 350 per day minimum wage rate promised by the BJP government. After the coronavirus struck, however, even these pitiful wages were withdrawn due to the unavailability of work and their plight reached such unheard levels that they are unable to afford even the basic necessities of life.
West Bengal, on the other hand, has had to deal with cyclone Amphan which until recently has damaged thousands of kutcha houses in the coastal areas and has also resulted in the deaths of 86 people. Apart from the people killed, over 10 million people have been displaced due to the severe infrastructural damage caused by the cyclone.
Having recognized these severe problems in these 2 states, our campaign strives to provide aid to the impoverished and unemployed workers of Assam and also funds to help in the renovation and repopulation of the cyclone-affected areas in West Bengal.
The aim of our campaign is to raise 4 lakh rupees which would then be divided in the manner as follows-
- Money set aside for Assam would be Rs 2 lakh, out of which Rs 1.5 lakh would be used in the making of masks and other activities by the self-help groups created over there for this purpose.
- Since the manufacturing cost of each mask would be Rs 4, we hope to produce approximately 37,500 masks.
- The remaining 50,000 rupees would be used for feeding the workers of the self-help groups during their working hours.
- We are hoping to employ 30 daily wage workers who will be given meals during their working hours for 16 consecutive days.
- Money set aside for West Bengal would be Rs 2 lakh which would be used for the renovation of the cyclone-affected coastal areas of the state.
The on-field implementation of our aims would be carried out by the Asom Mojuri Shramik Union. It's a registered union of unorganized and informal workers mostly daily- wage earners. It was registered in 2008. It needs money to distribute relief to half of the workers who have been affected by the lockdown. The certificate of registration is uploaded down below. The working of the self-help groups will be supervised by Mrs Mrinal Kanti Shome and Mr Manas Das.
