As per AirAsia officials, the Bollywood actor Sonu Sood arranged the chartered flight for the women after coming to know about their plight.
New Delhi| Actor Sonu Sood has been hailed for providing buses for migrant workers stranded due to the coronavirus lockdown. When the news of women labourers stuck in Kerala reached him, he quickly swung into action.
167 women were stuck in Kerala’s Ernakulam who were engaged in stitching and embroidery work at a local factory. They were seeking to return to their homes in Odisha. The women had nowhere to go after the company was shut down in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
“I came to know about them, connected with them through social media…My friend Neeti Goel and I reached out to them. We knew the only way was to fly them out,” Sonu Sood told CNN News18.
Another hurdle was that most airports were shut for passenger movement, but he arranged for permits from the government and had Kochi and Bhubaneswar airports opened.
They were desperate since the special Shramik trains were not instantly available and their money had got all used up. ‘Umeed Ki Udaan’ initiative might be the first to fly out migrant workers in a chartered flight in the nation.
As per Head of Sales & Distribution of AirAsia India, Anup Manjeshwar, Bollywood actor Sonu Sood arranged the chartered flight for the women after coming to know about their plight.
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“I was deeply saddened to see them walking with their little children on foot. These are the people who built our houses, our offices, they have laid the roads and I feel that we should not leave them in such distress,” Sood said.
The total cases in India surged to 161,000 and 4,706 deaths amid lockdown to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In the past 24 hours, 175 casualties were recorded. 7,466 cases new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the last 24 hours, highest so far.
The exodus of migrant workers began from the day lockdown was imposed in March and still continues. Lakhs of migrants started to walk hundreds of kilometres towards their homes. Some of them were killed by road or train accidents. Some died due to hunger.
Migrant workers are the worst affected people in India due to lack of transport facilities, money, food and assistance from governments all over the country.
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