International Labour Day: Familiarly known as migrant workers, out-of-state workers are often treated as ‘not one of us’. Unfortunately, the lockdown has put them at a much bigger risk. The Kerala government has referred these migrant workers as ‘guest workers’ and the Telangana CM referred to them as ‘partners’ in the state’s development.
Even from India’s thriving diasporic community, Telangana’s own Suresh Ediga is mobilising help for these stranded migrant workers. He too believes that they are our guests and they need our support now more than ever.
Today, many of them are walking hundreds and even thousands of kilometres with their families, without any essential provisions, to their home states. There is news that many are losing their lives before they reach home.
Guests relief work 
Suresh Ediga
While various states governments are ramping up their efforts to reach out to guest workers and help them, many individuals are also doing their bit to support them in any capacity they can. For these affected workers and their families, basic needs like food, shelter and other essential commodities are the difference between life and death.
Suresh Ediga is a software engineer based in New York. He has been living in the US for the last 20 years. Passionate about farming, he is associated with many farming groups in India. He is also an author and filmmaker.
He collaborated with Rythu Swarajya Vedika, Helpline volunteers and other groups working on-ground to identify people in need and ensure timely help. Suresh started an online fundraiser on Milaap to extend his help to more guest workers and their families stranded in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. His fundraiser with Milaap is receiving good response from many individuals.
Bathing soaps, detergent, milk powder and other such essentially have already been distributed to more than 4000 people on ground. Ration kits were also distributed in collaboration with Telangana Social Impact group.
The community of beneficiaries hail from across the country: Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Odisha & Bihar. Suresh and his team are doing every bit to ensure they feel cared for as our guests, even miles away from their homes.
Suresh believes that “these guests who have left their own homes and put in their time, effort and skill in building infrastructure, roads, buildings, highways, schools etc. in our city should be taken care of.”