The Tirupur Corona fighters (TCF) team worked round-the-clock to ensure no one passes a day in hunger. Around 1,500 volunteers worked on the field. Every call was addressed and nobody was left out - District Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan
Tirupur: The Tirupur Corona fighters (TCF) team worked round-the-clock to ensure no one passes a day in hunger. Around 1,500 volunteers worked on the field. Every call was addressed and nobody was left out - District Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan
There is a reason 'Dollar City' Tirupur is also known as 'The City Of Migrants'. Thousands of labourers from all over the country arrive to the district in search of a livelihood. And the city, has never failed to secure employment to the job seekers. However, things have now turned topsy turvy, as the migrant workers are left stranded in the district after the COVID lockdown was announced.
While the migrant workers stood clueless for their next meal, the district administration came at their rescue in no time. The Tirupur district administration once again has proved its resilience and ability to address an issue before it turns into a puzzle. The modus operandi by the district administration of Tirupur in handling migrant workers has set high standards and is certainly worth a model to embrace by other districts.
Kumar Duraisamy of Vanathukkul Tirupur, who was one of the organisers of the migrant exercise, said, "Tirupur has a culture in itself. Today's boss was yesterday's labourer. None of the business owners would have had it easy. Without sweating nobody has reached the place they are now. We understand the problems of labourers and take care of them because without them no industry can survive."
"As the lockdown began, the insight of evaluating the possible plight faced to be faced by the migrant workers during the lockdown period was meticulously evaluated and executed. A team of volunteers termed as 'Tirupur Corona Fighters' (TCF) was formed immediately after the announcement, under the aegis of Collector K. Vijayakarthikeyan.
NGOs from Udumalpet to Avinashi taluk were pooled and organized under one umbrella and the team started mining data of migrant workers from other districts of Tamil Nadu and other States who were stranded in Tirupur", recalls Kumar Duraiswamy.
Commending the Tirupur Corona Fighters team, Kumar Duraisamy expressed that TCF did an extraordinary work in terms of identifying the number of migrant workers, areas, requirements, medical assistance, rations, medicine, emergency helpline for pregnant women and what not..!
"One of the common problems faced at all places was the unavailability of hospitals to treat fever, as not every medical centre is equipped to handle COVID-19 cases. However, TCF along with a few doctors, managed to get a few private hospitals on board. Ambulances with a team of doctors and nurses were organised to attend to health issues. Following a call, doctors arrive at the doorstep, diagnose the patient and administered treatment. In some cases, patients were directed to hospitals. This helped a lot and comforted the migrant workers and assured them that they were taken care", he noted.
"Tirupur has more than 3 lakh migrant labourers, many left to their native places. Almost 63,000 workers, who work in various garment factories were provided accomodation and food by the respective companies.The rest were contract labourers, who work in construction, sanitation and in small hotels and eateries. Our volunteers covered the entire district and collected data going door to door. The local VAO was contacted, and at least 60 volunteers were allotted for each village, sometimes even more. We have a form where details are filled based on the Aadhar number. One copy of the form was given to the VAO and we had one copy", details Sandeep, a TCF member on the process.
Believe it or not, all this took off with just one tweet from Collector Vijayakarthikeyan's calling for volunteers. "There were thousands of calls after the tweet. It was like the Collector invited everyone personally and we were getting calls even at midnight for volunteer registration. After verification and evaluation, volunteers were selected and assigned different tasks. The volunteer pool comprises of people from all walks of life -- from doctors to drivers. More the people wider was our reach. Be it any issue, it was addressed within hours, thanks to the huge network of volunteers," said Sandeep.
Seconding them, Collector K Vijayakarthikeyan said this was all made possible by the unrelenting support from all fronts -- officials, volunteers and the public. "The moment lockdown was announced, the district administration planned proactive steps to address the plight of the migrant workers. We took no time to form a helpline number with volunteers who could speak different languages -- Hindi, Odia, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada and so on. We had officials helping the team of volunteers in addressing the various issues. Around 1,500 volunteers worked on the field. Every call was addressed and nobody was left out without food. Vegetables, fruits and meat were delivered in separate vehicles at doorsteps, so that people did not need to venture out to buy essentials."
"Though migrant workers issue blew up to a great extent in many parts of the country, back here in Tirupur we managed the issue by being proactive. Not to forget the rations provided by the State government which helped us execute our plan at ease", the Collector told.
Explaining on how a distress call was handled and how help reached, Sandeep stated that, "Karthika Moorthy, a resident of Chennai who hails from Tirupur, had reached out to the Collector on Twitter. She requested help to get some medicines from Tirupur for her mother, who is stuck in Chennai due to the lockdown. Since the medicines were not available in Chennai, she requested help. Once we got the information, we organised the medicines and sent them through a vehicle which was heading to Chennai and the package was delivered the next morning. The elderly lady had some neuro issues and she was extremely relieved after receiving her medication. This kind of timely coordination and planning helped us reach out to many needy people."
Every single labourer was delivered rations at their doorstep. Though the numbers were large, we aced it through planning, continous coordination and executing it in a systematic manner, he added.
Elaborating more on the seamless execution, Kumar Duraisamy from the team told that a person can go with this form to the VAO, get rations for his family, get a seal affixed on the form and the process can be repeated once in 15 days. The VAO will have one copy of the form and we have a copy that will be updated too. By doing so, we ensured nobody in Tirupur will go hungry or get rations multiple times. We ensured that this system worked well and reached out to every migrant worker.
Notably, TCF's work was not restricted to migrants alone. Team members compiled a list of grocery shops, milk vendors, and medical stores in Uthukulli, Dharapuram, Udumalpet, Avinashi, Kangeyam, Madathukulam, Tirupur North and South. They also collected phone bookings and door delivery lists of essential shops in and around Tirupur district and the same were shared with the public through volunteers and social media applications.
They also carried out doorstep medicine delivery to deter people from leaving their homes, senaitised the public by creating social distancing awareness videos, posters and memes and distributed the same through Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms.
The team ensured doorstep delivery of vegetables from farmers to the public in coordination with different NGOs. Team members also provided temporary accommodation to street dwellers at community centers and made arrangements for providing three meals a day.
"All this was possible only due to the help of the Collector and the administration, who took proactive measures. Since every migrant worker was taken care of, nobody wanted to go their home town. All they want now is get back to their work," added Kumar Duraiswamy.
The efforts and the feat in addressing to the needs of the migrant workers by the Tirupur district administration has emerged as a model to be echoed across the nation.