By Gagan Pal
Gandhinagar (Odisha), June 02, 2020: Residents of a remote village in Odisha joined as the June 2 national mourning in memory of migrant laborers who lost their lives during the lockdown.
“We were invited to mourn and lament the loss of our brothers and sisters. As people of faith we refuse to let these deaths go unnoticed,” asserted Praful Lima, a member of the committee that organized the program in Gandhinagar, a village in Gajapati district.
He said they received the call to join the national mourning through a WhatsApp message from the coordinators of the Odisha unit of the Right to Food Campaign.
More than 50 members of a Self-Help Group of Gandhinagar came to the village center to observe the day of mourning.
In her opening speech, Basanti Pal, president of the Pallavi Self Help Group said, “We are not only lamenting the loss of our neighbors, but also lamenting starvation, accident, and inequality suffered by the poor and distressed people of our own.”
The group raised a slogans in Odia that said, “Let our migrant brothers and sisters reach their home safely,” and “We want rice, dal and oil for everyone without discrimination.:
Ramarao Jena, another member of the village committee, expressed sadness that some villagers do not receive the returning laborers fearing the coronavirus.
“In our village we are waiting to welcome our own family members and relatives stranded in different cities, but no one has reached our place,” he said.
Mausumi Nag, secretary of Laxi self Help Group, said the program was the “first of this kind” they have organized in their village. She also said they felt “proud that we could stand in solidarity with the laborers and asset our demands collectively.”
The Self-Help Group members also raised the following demands while observing the day of mourning:
They want the government to ensure free and safe transportation to the workers, make universal and unconditional Public Distribution System available to all.
The group also wanted the poor villagers and migrants given free health facilities and that the government should ensure livelihood to the poor labors.
The Right to Food activists will continue to observe the mourning for a week at different places and different ways to heighten the plight of the migrant labors.