It is heartwrenching to see the plight of daily-wage labourers who have been the worst affected by the 21-day lockdown. With no earnings, they are neither able to send money home nor they have much to feed themselves. Recently, 2 helpless daily-wage labourers were fed by Delhi Police after they went hungry for 4 days.
To help such people in this difficult time, a 60-year-old man from Kerala has taken upon himself to feed and provide shelter to as many as 131 daily-wage migrants hailing from Bihar and Jharkhand, reports The New Indian Express.
Abdul Khader, a former telephone operator, has put the 131 workers in 10 hall-size rooms which have televisions, fans, a big kitchen, and 10 toilets. He has been feeding them since the past 10 days. At the beginning of the lockdown, when the situation wasn’t this severe, he fed them meat. However, now he feeds them rice, daal, and soybeans. Abdul also managed to rent steel plates and tumblers.
The man spends Rs 8,000 per day to feed the migrants. Therefore, in the past 10 days, he has spent Rs 80,000. But he doesn’t mind the cost.
“I don’t mind that because I was once in their position,” he revealed.
Abdul Khader has had a difficult road to solvency himself. 40 years ago, he arrived in Dubai and cleaned the tables of a restaurant. After learning about his distress, the owner of the restaurant asked him to learn Arabic, and so Abdul did. After learning Arabic, he bagged the job of a telephone operator at Al Ain University where he worked for 30 years. It has been 4 years since Abdul retired.
“When I heard of the lockdown, I did not think twice before taking over their responsibility. What if the corona takes me tomorrow. The best thing money can do is the satiate the hunger of a person.”
Such kind people like Abdul Khader are a ray of hope for the helpless. Respect!